System or method to implement consensus on read on distributed ledger/blockchain

ABSTRACT

A method is performed by a system of a host organization for managing read access of data in a blockchain, the system providing a blockchain interface to a blockchain on behalf of a plurality of tenants of the host organization. The method includes receiving a transaction to be stored to the blockchain via the blockchain interface, encrypting transaction data using a key generated by the blockchain interface, dividing the key into a set of shared secrets corresponding to each node in the blockchain network, receiving a request to access the transaction data by the blockchain interface, receiving at least one of the shared secrets from a node in the blockchain network indicating consensus, and decrypting the transaction data in response to receiving the shared secrets.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No.62/851,589, filed May 22, 2019, which is hereby incorporated byreference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

Embodiments disclosed herein relate generally to the field ofdistributed ledger technology and blockchain platforms. Moreparticularly, disclosed embodiments relate to systems, methods, andapparatuses for implementing access restrictions related to reading datafrom a blockchain in a metadata driven blockchain platform usingDistributed Ledger Technology (DLT) in conjunction with a cloud basedcomputing environment.

BACKGROUND ART

A blockchain is a continuously expanding list of records/blocks that arelinked and secured using cryptography. In particular, every block in ablockchain may include a cryptographic hash of the immediately precedingblock, a timestamp for the current block, and transaction data (e.g.,the addition/modification of information associated with a peer in ablockchain network). Further, the blockchain may be shared and managedthrough a peer-to-peer network via a system of verifying/validating newblocks to be added to the chain such that a block in a blockchain cannotbe altered without alteration of all subsequent blocks, which requiresnetwork consensus. This architecture allows for security of informationstored within blocks through the use of cryptography;sharing/distribution of information through the use of peer-to-peernetworks; trust through the use of consensus of block addition; andimmutability of information stored within blocks through the use ofcryptography, chaining/linking of blocks, and peer distribution (e.g.,each peer in the blockchain network may maintain a ledger of allverified/validated transactions in the network). Blockchains can beutilized to store many different types of data including financial data.Such financial data can be stored in a blockchain that functions as adistributed ledger.

A distributed ledger in blockchain is shared by all of the participantsin that blockchain. Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) helps to addressand overcome many of the types of shortcomings of conventional financialsystems, however, the technology may nevertheless be expanded tointroduce even further benefits to those utilizing such DLT and relatedblockchain platforms. Presently available DLT and blockchains utilizingsuch DLT technologies store data in a fixed, immutable, and staticmanner. Thus, once data is written into the blockchain, it is fixedthere, wholly absent of context, metadata, or any other informationwhich describes the stored data, describes the shape of the data, ordescribes the type of the data. Consequently, it may prove extremelydifficult to transform data retrieved from the blockchain back into aformat which is acceptable for the business objectives due to the lackof context of other metadata describing that stored data.

Further still, presently available DLT and blockchains utilizing suchDLT technologies require any record on the blockchain which is updatedor modified to be re-written to the blockchain in its entirety,resulting in an explosion of total volume of stored data on theblockchain, which is likely unsustainable and at the least resourceintensive. Other conceived approaches write only the modified portion ofa record to the blockchain, which results in inefficient data retrievalas the complete record is now split amongst multiple blocks on theblockchain and thus necessitates any retrieval of a modified record tosearch for, inspect, and retrieve data from multiple blocks on theblockchain.

Further, presently available DLT and blockchains store the data in theblockchain such that it is accessible to any node in the network. Thedata in the blockchain is never removed. Due to these characteristics,DLT and blockchains can be poor fits for use in applications where it isnecessary for data to be permanently deleted or where it is desired torestrict access privileges to the data stored in the blockchain.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The following figures use like reference numbers to refer to likeelements. Although the following figures depict various exemplaryimplementations, alternative implementations are within the spirit andscope of the appended claims. In the drawings:

FIG. 1A depicts an exemplary architecture in accordance with describedembodiments;

FIG. 1B depicts another exemplary architecture, with additional detailof a blockchain protocol block operating in conjunction with a blockvalidator, in accordance with described embodiments;

FIG. 1C depicts another exemplary architecture, with additional detailof the blockchain metadata definition manager set forth in greaterdetail, in accordance with described embodiments;

FIG. 1D depicts another exemplary architecture, which depicts theintegration of host organization services with the blockchain servicesinterface in greater detail, in accordance with described embodiments;

FIG. 1E depicts another exemplary architecture, which depicts anexemplary data flow utilizing the blockchain services interface, inaccordance with described embodiments;

FIG. 2A depicts another exemplary architecture, with additional detailof a blockchain and a forked blockchain, in accordance with describedembodiments;

FIG. 2B depicts another exemplary architecture with additional detailfor sidechains, in accordance with described embodiments;

FIG. 3A depicts an exemplary architecture in accordance with describedembodiments;

FIG. 3B depicts another exemplary architecture in accordance withdescribed embodiments;

FIG. 3C depicts another exemplary architecture in accordance withdescribed embodiments;

FIG. 3D depicts another exemplary architecture in accordance withdescribed embodiments;

FIG. 4A depicts another exemplary architecture, with additional detailof a blockchain implemented smart contract created utilizing a smartflowcontract engine, in accordance with described embodiments;

FIG. 4B depicts another exemplary architecture, with additional detailof a blockchain implemented smart contract created utilizing an Apextranslation engine, in accordance with described embodiments;

FIG. 4C depicts another exemplary architecture, with additional detailof an SQL Filtering and Query translator utilizing an Apex translationengine for records stored persistently to a blockchain, in accordancewith described embodiments;

FIG. 5A depicts another exemplary architecture in accordance withdescribed embodiments;

FIG. 5B depicts another exemplary architecture for performing dynamicmetadata validation of stored data in accordance with describedembodiments;

FIG. 5C depicts another exemplary architecture for storing relatedentities in accordance with described embodiments;

FIG. 6A depicts another exemplary architecture for retrieving storedrecords from addressable blocks using an indexing scheme, in accordancewith described embodiments;

FIG. 6B depicts another exemplary architecture for building an indexfrom records in the blockchain and maintaining the index, in accordancewith described embodiments;

FIG. 6C depicts another exemplary architecture for utilizing anaddressing structure to form an address for retrieving information fromthe index, in accordance with described embodiments;

FIG. 6D depicts another exemplary architecture for utilizing an addressto retrieve information from the index, in accordance with describedembodiments;

FIG. 6E depicts another exemplary architecture for incrementallyupdating a blockchain asset for stored records using an index to storecurrent updates, in accordance with described embodiments;

FIG. 7A depicts another exemplary architecture in accordance withdescribed embodiments;

FIG. 7B depicts another exemplary architecture in accordance withdescribed embodiments;

FIG. 7C depicts another exemplary architecture in accordance withdescribed embodiments;

FIG. 8A depicts another exemplary architecture in accordance withdescribed embodiments;

FIG. 8B depicts another exemplary architecture in accordance withdescribed embodiments;

FIG. 8C depicts another exemplary architecture in accordance withdescribed embodiments;

FIG. 8D depicts another exemplary architecture in accordance withdescribed embodiments;

FIG. 8E depicts another exemplary architecture in accordance withdescribed embodiments;

FIG. 8F depicts another exemplary architecture in accordance withdescribed embodiments;

FIG. 9A depicts another exemplary architecture in accordance withdescribed embodiments;

FIG. 9B depicts another exemplary architecture in accordance withdescribed embodiments;

FIG. 9C depicts another exemplary architecture in accordance withdescribed embodiments;

FIG. 10 is a flowchart of one embodiment of a process for consensus onread;

FIGS. 11A-11C are flowcharts related to a set of processes forimplementing a right to forget function within a blockchain serviceinterface;

FIG. 11D is a diagram of an example GDPR implementation.

FIGS. 12A-12C are flowcharts related to a set of processes forimplementing an access control function within a blockchain serviceinterface;

FIG. 12D is a diagram of example access control process implementation.

FIG. 13 depicts a flow diagram illustrating a method for implementingefficient storage and validation of data and metadata within ablockchain using Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), in accordance withdescribed embodiments;

FIG. 14 shows a diagrammatic representation of a system within whichembodiments may operate, be installed, integrated, or configured, inaccordance with described embodiments;

FIG. 15A depicts another exemplary architecture in accordance withdescribed embodiments;

FIG. 15B depicts another exemplary architecture in accordance withdescribed embodiments;

FIG. 15C depicts another exemplary architecture in accordance withdescribed embodiments;

FIG. 16 depicts a flow diagram illustrating a method for implementing adeclarative and metadata driven blockchain platform using DistributedLedger Technology (DLT) in conjunction with a cloud based computingenvironment, in accordance with described embodiments;

FIG. 17 depicts a flow diagram illustrating a method for implementing adeclarative, metadata driven, cryptographically verifiable multi-network(multi-tenant) shared ledger in conjunction with a cloud based computingenvironment, in accordance with described embodiments;

FIG. 18A illustrates a block diagram of an environment in which anon-demand database service may operate in accordance with the describedembodiments;

FIG. 18B illustrates another block diagram of an embodiment of elementsof FIG. 10A and various possible interconnections between such elementsin accordance with the described embodiments; and

FIG. 19 illustrates a diagrammatic representation of a machine in theexemplary form of a computer system, in accordance with someembodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Described herein are systems, methods, and apparatuses for implementingaccess controls and right to forget based on a consensus on read processin a metadata driven blockchain platform. In some embodiments, themetadata driven blockchain platform uses Distributed Ledger Technology(DLT) in conjunction with a cloud based computing environment.

FIG. 1A depicts an exemplary architecture 100 in accordance withdescribed embodiments.

In one embodiment, a hosted computing environment 111 is communicablyinterfaced with a plurality of user client devices 106A-C (e.g., such asmobile devices, smart phones, tablets, PCs, etc.) through hostorganization 110. In one embodiment, a database system 130 includesdatabases 155A and 155B, for example, to store application code, objectdata, tables, datasets, and underlying database records including userdata on behalf of customer organizations 105A-C (e.g., users of such adatabase system 130 or tenants of a multi-tenant database type databasesystem or the affiliated users of such a database system). Suchdatabases include various database system types including, for example,a relational database system 155A and a non-relational database system155B according to certain embodiments.

In certain embodiments, a client-server computing architecture may beutilized to supplement features, functionality, or computing resourcesfor the database system 130 or alternatively, a computing grid, or apool of work servers, or some combination of hosted computingarchitectures may provide some or all of computational workload andprocessing demanded of the host organization 110 in conjunction with thedatabase system 130.

The database system 130 depicted in the embodiment shown includes aplurality of underlying hardware, software, and logic elements 120 thatimplement database functionality and a code execution environment withinthe host organization 110.

In accordance with one embodiment, database system 130 utilizes theunderlying database system implementations 155A and 155B to servicedatabase queries and other data interactions with the database system130 that communicate with the database system 130 via the queryinterface 180. The hardware, software, and logic elements 120 of thedatabase system 130 are separate and distinct from the customerorganizations (105A, 105B, and 105C) which utilize web services andother service offerings as provided by the host organization 110 bycommunicably interfacing to the host organization 110 via network 125.In such a way, host organization 110 may implement on-demand services,on-demand database services or cloud computing services to subscribingcustomer organizations 105A-C.

In one embodiment, each customer organization 105A-C is an entityselected from the group consisting of: a separate and distinct remoteorganization, an organizational group within the host organization 110,a business partner of the host organization 110, or a customerorganization 105A-C that subscribes to cloud computing services providedby the host organization 110.

Further depicted is the host organization 110 receiving input and otherrequests 115 from customer organizations 105A-C via network 125 (e.g., apublic network, the Internet, or similar network). For example, incomingsearch queries, database queries, API requests, interactions withdisplayed graphical user interfaces and displays at the user clientdevices 106A-C, or other inputs may be received from the customerorganizations 105A-C to be processed against the database system 130, orsuch queries may be constructed from the inputs and other requests 115for execution against the databases 155 or the query interface 180,pursuant to which results 116 are then returned to an originator orrequestor, such as a user of one of a user client device 106A-C at acustomer organization 105A-C.

In one embodiment, requests 115 are received at, or submitted to, aweb-server 175 within host organization 110. Host organization 110 mayreceive a variety of requests for processing by the host organization110 and its database system 130. Incoming requests 115 received atweb-server 175 may specify which services from the host organization 110are to be provided, such as query requests, search request, statusrequests, database transactions, graphical user interface requests andinteractions, processing requests to retrieve, update, or store data onbehalf of one of the customer organizations 105A-C, code executionrequests, and so forth. Web-server 175 may be responsible for receivingrequests 115 from various customer organizations 105A-C via network 125on behalf of the query interface 180 and for providing a web-basedinterface or other graphical displays to an end-user user client device106A-C or machine originating such data requests 115.

Certain requests 115 received at the host organization may be directedtoward a blockchain for which the blockchain services interface 190 ofthe host organization 110 operates as an intermediary.

The query interface 180 is capable of receiving and executing requestedqueries against the databases and storage components of the databasesystem 130 and returning a result set, response, or other requested datain furtherance of the methodologies described. The query interface 180additionally provides functionality to pass queries from web-server 175into the database system 130 for execution against the databases 155 forprocessing search queries, or into the other available data stores ofthe host organization's computing environment 111. In one embodiment,the query interface 180 implements an Application Programming Interface(API) through which queries may be executed against the databases 155 orthe other data stores. Additionally, the query interface 180 providesinteroperability with the blockchain services interface 190, thuspermitting the host organization 110 to conduct transactions with eitherthe database system 130 via the query interface 180 or to transactblockchain transactions onto a connected blockchain for which the hostorganization 110 is a participating node or is in communication with theparticipating nodes 133, or the host organization 110 may conducttransactions involving both data persisted by the database system 130(accessible via the query interface 180) and involving data persisted bya connected blockchain (e.g., accessible from a participating node 133or from a connected blockchain directly, where the host organizationoperates a participating node on such a blockchain).

In certain embodiments, the Application Programming Interface (API) ofthe query interface 180 provides an API model through which programmers,developers, and administrators may interact with the blockchain servicesinterface 190 or the database system 130, or both, as the needs andparticular requirements of the API caller dictate.

Host organization 110 may implement a request interface 176 viaweb-server 175 or as a stand-alone interface to receive requests packetsor other requests 115 from the user client devices 106A-C. Requestinterface 176 further supports the return of response packets or otherreplies and responses 116 in an outgoing direction from hostorganization 110 to the user client devices 106A-C. Authenticator 140operates on behalf of the host organization to verify, authenticate, andotherwise credential users attempting to gain access to the hostorganization.

Further depicted within host organization 110 is the blockchain servicesinterface 190 having included therein both a blockchain consensusmanager 191 which facilitates consensus management for private andpublic blockchains upon which tenants, customer organizations, or thehost organization itself 110 operate as a participating node on asupported blockchain. Additionally, depicted is the blockchain metadatadefinition manager 196, which enables the blockchain services interface190 to define and create metadata which is then pushed to and transactedonto a blockchain which is interfaced via the blockchain servicesinterface. For instance, via the blockchain metadata definition manager196, it is possible to for any customer organization 105A-C of the hostorganization to define and create metadata which is then recorded ortransacted onto the blockchain for use by that customer organization105A-C and for use by other participating nodes on the blockchain,regardless of whether or not those participating nodes 133 are alsocustomer organizations 105A-C with the host organization 110. Forexample, once metadata is defined and created via the blockchainmetadata definition manager 196 and pushed onto the blockchain, anyparticipating node 133 with access to the blockchain where that metadatadefinition resides can then create data records and store informationonto the blockchain which adopts the defined metadata definition andthus complies with the newly created metadata definition. In such a way,all participating nodes can utilize information which is stored incompliance with the newly created metadata definition, as there is astandardized and customizable manner for storing such data.

In one embodiment, the blockchain consensus manager 191 and blockchainmetadata definition manager 196 work in conjunction to implementconsensus on read functions as described further herein below withreference to FIGS. 10-12. A consensus on read is a specific type ofconsensus for controlling read access to data stored on the blockchain.Data is stored in an encrypted format where the encryption key isdistributed as a shared secret with other nodes in the blockchainplatform. The nodes 133 of the network perform a consensus on readoperation when a request to access the data is made. The consensus onread process examines the credentials or any configured criteria that isdetermined to be required, which is provided in the access request. Eachnode that approves of the read access responds with its portion of theshared secret that enables the requesting node to generate the key fromthe shared secrets to decrypt the data on the blockchain and access thedata. A threshold number of secrets must be returned to enable access tothe encrypted data. The threshold number can be configured and/ordetermined by the shared secret algorithm utilized with the consensus onread process (e.g., Shamir's secret sharing algorithm).

In further embodiments, a permissions manager 181 operates to enforceaccess controls and privileges as defined in metadata for data stored inthe blockchain. The permissions manager 181 can enforce restrictions onaccessing records, objects, fields, or similar levels of granularity onaccess control including read and write access controls. The permissionsmanager 181 can enforce management of the blockchain data based onmetadata defining access privileges. The access privileges can utilize aunique user identifier (UUID) or similar entity identifier. The metadatacan define a list of entities with permission to read or write data inthe blockchain. The metadata can also define a set of owners thatcontrol the consensus on read process that is utilized to manage theaccess to access controlled information. In some embodiments, thepermissions manager 181 can implement a right to forget process (e.g.,in compliance with European Union general data protection regulation(GDPR)) or similar process to ‘erase’ data from the blockchain. Theoperations of the permissions manager 181 and the consensus on readprocess of the blockchain consensus manager 191 including the right toforget and access privileges are further discussed and described hereinwith relation to FIGS. 10-12.

As shown here, the blockchain services interface 190 communicativelyinterfaces the host organization 110 with other participating nodes 133(e.g., via the network 125) so as to enable the host organization 110 toparticipate in available blockchain protocols by acting as a blockchainprotocol compliant node, which in turn, permits the host organization110 to access information within such a blockchain as well as enablingthe host organization 110 to provide blockchain services to otherparticipating nodes 133 for any number of blockchain protocols supportedby, and offered to customers and subscribers by the host organization110. In certain embodiments, the host organization 110 both provides theblockchain protocol upon which the host organization then also operatesas participating node. In other embodiments, the host organizationmerely operates as a participating node so as to enable the hostorganization 110 to interact with the blockchain protocol(s) provided byothers.

According to certain embodiments, the blockchain metadata definitionmanager 196 additionally permits non-subscribers (e.g., entities whichare not customer organizations 105A-C) of the host organization tonevertheless utilize the blockchain metadata definition manager 196 andgraphical user interfaces (GUIs) associated with the blockchain metadatadefinition manager 196 via an exposed API interface for suchnon-subscribing customers which may then create and define metadatadefinitions which are then pushed onto the blockchain via the hostorganization's blockchain services interface 190.

A blockchain is a continuously growing list of records, grouped inblocks, which are linked together and secured using cryptography. Eachblock typically contains a hash pointer as a link to a previous block, atimestamp and transaction data. By design, blockchains are inherentlyresistant to modification of the data. A blockchain system essentiallyis an open, distributed ledger that records transactions between twoparties in an efficient and verifiable manner, which is also immutableand permanent. A distributed ledger (also called a shared or commonledger, or referred to as distributed ledger technology (DLT)) is aconsensus of replicated, shared, and synchronized digital datageographically spread across multiple nodes. The nodes may be located indifferent sites, countries, institutions, user communities, customerorganizations, host organizations, hosted computing environments, orapplication servers. There is no central administrator or centralizeddata storage.

Blockchain systems use a peer-to-peer (P2P) network of nodes, andconsensus algorithms ensure replication of digital data across nodes. Ablockchain system may be either public or private. Not all distributedledgers necessarily employ a chain of blocks to successfully providesecure and valid achievement of distributed consensus: a blockchain isonly one type of data structure considered to be a distributed ledger.

P2P computing or networking is a distributed application architecturethat partitions tasks or workloads between peers. Peers are equallyprivileged, equally capable participants in an application that forms apeer-to-peer network of nodes. Peers make a portion of their resources,such as processing power, disk storage or network bandwidth, directlyavailable to other network participants, without the need for centralcoordination by servers or hosts. Peers are both suppliers and consumersof resources, in contrast to the traditional client-server model inwhich the consumption and supply of resources is divided. A peer-to-peernetwork is thus designed around the notion of equal peer nodessimultaneously functioning as both clients and servers to the othernodes on the network.

For use as a distributed ledger, a blockchain is typically managed by apeer-to-peer network collectively adhering to a protocol for validatingnew blocks. Once recorded, the data in any given block cannot be alteredretroactively without the alteration of all subsequent blocks, whichrequires collusion of the network majority. In this manner, blockchainsare secure by design and are an example of a distributed computingsystem with high Byzantine fault tolerance. Decentralized consensus hastherefore been achieved with a blockchain. This makes blockchainssuitable for the recording of events, medical records, insurancerecords, and other records management activities, such as identitymanagement, transaction processing, documenting provenance, or voting.

A blockchain database is managed autonomously using a peer-to-peernetwork and a distributed timestamping server. Records, in the form ofblocks, are authenticated in the blockchain by collaboration among thenodes, motivated by collective self-interests. As a result,participants' uncertainty regarding data security is minimized. The useof a blockchain removes the characteristic of reproducibility of adigital asset. It confirms that each unit of value, e.g., an asset, wastransferred only once, solving the problem of double spending.

Blocks in a blockchain each hold batches (“blocks”) of validtransactions that are hashed and encoded into a Merkle tree. Each blockincludes the hash of the prior block in the blockchain, linking the two.The linked blocks form a chain. This iterative process confirms theintegrity of the previous block, all the way back to the first block inthe chain, sometimes called a genesis block or a root block.

By storing data across its network, the blockchain eliminates the risksthat come with data being held centrally and controlled by a singleauthority. Although the host organization 110 provides a wide array ofdata processing and storage services, including the capability ofproviding vast amounts of data with a single responsible agent, such asthe host organization 110, blockchain services differ insomuch that thehost organization 110 is not a single authority for such services, butrather, via the blockchain services interface 190, is one of many nodesfor an available blockchain protocol or operates as blockchain protocolmanager and provider, while other participating nodes 133 communicatingwith the host organization 110 via blockchain services interface 190collectively operate as the repository for the information stored withina blockchain by implementing compliant distributed ledger technology(DLT) in accordance with the available blockchain protocol offered bythe host organization 110.

The decentralized blockchain may use ad-hoc message passing anddistributed networking. The blockchain network lacks centralized pointsof vulnerability that computer hackers may exploit. Likewise, it has nocentral point of failure. Blockchain security methods include the use ofpublic-key cryptography. A public key is an address on the blockchain.Value tokens sent across the network are recorded as belonging to thataddress. A private key is like a password that gives its owner access totheir digital assets or the means to otherwise interact with the variouscapabilities that blockchains support. Data stored on the blockchain isgenerally considered incorruptible. This is where blockchain has itsadvantage. While centralized data is more controllable, information anddata manipulation are common. By decentralizing such data, blockchainmakes data transparent to everyone involved.

Every participating node 133 for a particular blockchain protocol withina decentralized system has a copy of the blockchain for that specificblockchain protocol. Data quality is maintained by massive databasereplication and computational trust. No centralized official copy of thedatabase exists and, by default, no user and none of the participatingnodes 133 are trusted more than any other, although this default may bealtered via certain specialized blockchain protocols as will bedescribed in greater detail below. Blockchain transactions are broadcastto the network using software, via which any participating node 133,including the host organization 110 when operating as a node, receivessuch transaction broadcasts. Broadcast messages are delivered on a besteffort basis. Nodes validate transactions, add them to the block theyare building, and then broadcast the completed block to other nodes.Blockchains use various time-stamping schemes, such as proof-of-work, toserialize changes. Alternate consensus may be utilized in conjunctionwith the various blockchain protocols offered by and supported by thehost organization, with such consensus mechanisms including, for exampleproof-of-stake, proof-of-authority and proof-of-burn, to name a few.

Open blockchains are more user friendly than conventional traditionalownership records, which, while open to the public, still requirephysical access to view. Because most of the early blockchains werepermissionless, there is some debate about the specific accepteddefinition of a so called “blockchain,” such as, whether a privatesystem with verifiers tasked and authorized (permissioned) by a centralauthority is considered a blockchain. The concept of permissionedverifiers is separate than the permissioned access control processesdescribed herein. Proponents of permissioned or private chains arguethat the term blockchain may be applied to any data structure thatgroups data into time-stamped blocks. These blockchains serve as adistributed version of multiversion concurrency control (MVCC) indatabases. Just as MVCC prevents two transactions from concurrentlymodifying a single object in a database, blockchains prevent twotransactions from spending the same single output in a blockchain.Regardless of the semantics or specific terminology applied to thevarying types of blockchain technologies, the methodologies describedherein with respect to a “blockchain” expand upon conventionalblockchain protocol implementations to provide additional flexibility,open up new services and use cases for the described blockchainimplementations, and depending upon the particular blockchain protocoloffered or supported by the blockchain services interface 190 of thehost organization 110, both private and public mechanisms are describedherein and utilized as needed for different implementations supported bythe host organization 110.

An advantage to an open, permissionless, or public, blockchain networkis that guarding against bad actors is not required and no accesscontrol is generally needed, although as discussed herein, theembodiments provide for a blockchain access control for particular casesthat are applicable to permissioned or public blockchains. This meansthat applications may be added to the network without the approval ortrust of others, using the blockchain as a transport layer. Conversely,permissioned (e.g., private) blockchains use an access control layer togovern who has access to the network. The embodiments further provideaccess controls for entities within or external to a private or publicblockchain. In contrast to public blockchain networks, validators onprivate blockchain networks are vetted, for example, by the networkowner, or one or more members of a consortium. They rely on known nodesto validate transactions. Permissioned blockchains also go by the nameof “consortium” or “hybrid” blockchains. Today, many corporations areusing blockchain networks with private blockchains, or blockchain-baseddistributed ledgers, independent of a public blockchain system.

FIG. 1B depicts another exemplary architecture 101, with additionaldetail of a blockchain protocol block 160 operating in conjunction witha block validator 192, in accordance with described embodiments. Theblockchain consensus manager 191 implements consensus on read and thepermissions manager 181 support access control and similar operations asfurther described herein below in relation to FIGS. 10-12.

In particular, a blockchain protocol block 160 is depicted here to bevalidated by the block validator 192 of the host organization 110, withthe blockchain protocol block including addition detail of its varioussub-components, and certain optional elements which may be utilized inconjunction with the blockchain protocol block 160 depending on theparticular blockchain protocol being utilized via the blockchainservices interface 190.

In accordance with a particular embodiment, the blockchain protocolblock 160 depicted here defines a particular structure for how thefundamental blocks of any given blockchain protocol supported by thehost organization 110 is organized.

According to certain embodiments, blockchain metadata definition manager196 as shown here may utilize a specific blockchain implementation whichis provided by the host organization 110 and thus, for which theapplicable blockchain protocol is defined by the host organization 110or alternatively, the blockchain metadata definition manager 196 mayutilize any publicly accessible blockchain for which the hostorganization operates as a participating node so as to establish accessor the blockchain metadata definition manager 196 may utilize a privateblockchain, including those which are not provided by the hostorganization 110, so long as the host organization is able toauthenticate with such a private blockchain and access the blockchain byoperating as a participating node on the private blockchain.

As will be described in greater detail below, the blockchain metadatadefinition manager 196 implements a specialized metadata definition andcreation scheme which may include the use of GUIs and otheruser-friendly interfaces which are provided by the host organizationeither via an API or via an interface of the host organization, such asthe web-server 175 via which users and customer organizations mayinteract with the host organization and more particularly, with theservices and applications provided by the host organization, includinguse of GUIs provided by the blockchain metadata definition manager 196which is made accessible to tenants of the host organization via thecloud computing platform and in certain embodiments made available tonon-tenants and non-subscribers of the host organization 110, either ofwhich may then utilize the GUIs and functionality provided by theblockchain metadata definition manager 196.

It may be necessary in accordance with certain embodiments that acustomized blockchain protocol implementation be provided by the hostorganization to support use of the specialized metadata definition andcreation scheme as implemented by the blockchain metadata definitionmanager 196, however, in embodiments where the metadata may permissiblybe defined and stored onto a blockchain by the host organization 110,then any blockchain utilized to store such data will be otherwiseunaffected as the blockchain is agnostic as to what types of metadata isdefined or created and transacted onto the blockchain by the hostorganization. Stated differently, while the host organization 110facilitates the definition and creation of such metadata and transactsthat information onto a blockchain, it is immaterial to the blockchainas to what applications elect to utilize such data, whereas the hostorganization facilitates a platform in which applications may elect toonly utilize data which is in compliance with the defined and createdmetadata, thus permitting transferability of such data, as well as manyother benefits.

With respect to the blockchain protocol block 160 (regardless of whetherit is an existing and already available blockchain protocol or a customimplemented blockchain protocol), the prior hash 161 is the result of anon-reversible mathematical computation using data from the prior block159 as the input. The prior block 159 in turn utilized data from the nprevious block(s) 158 to form the non-reversible mathematicalcomputation forming the prior hash for those respective blocks. Forinstance, according to one embodiment, the non-reversible mathematicalcomputation utilized is a SHA256 hash function, although other hashfunctions may be utilized. According to such an embodiment, the hashfunction results in any change to data in the prior block 159 or any ofthe n previous blocks 158 in the chain, causing an unpredictable changein the hash of those prior blocks, and consequently, invalidating thepresent or current blockchain protocol block 160. Prior hash 161 createsthe link between blocks, chaining them together to form the currentblockchain protocol block 160.

When the block validator 192 calculates the prior hash 161 for the priorblock 159, the hash must meet certain criteria defined by data stored asthe standard of proof 165. For instance, in one embodiment, thisstandard of proof 165 is a number that the calculated hash must be lessthan. Because the output of the hashing function is unpredictable, itcannot be known before the hash is calculated what input will result inan output that is less than the standard of proof 165. The nonce 162 isused to vary the data content of the block, allowing for a large numberof different outputs to be produced by the hash function in pursuit ofan output that meets the standard of proof 165, thus making itexceedingly computationally expensive (and therefore statisticallyimprobable) of producing a valid block with a nonce 162 that results ina hash value meeting the criteria of the standard of proof 165.

Payload hash 163 provides a hash of the data stored within the blockpayload 169 portion of the blockchain protocol block 160 and need notmeet any specific standard of proof 165. However, the payload hash isincluded as part of the input when the hash is calculated for thepurpose of storing as the prior hash 161 for the next or subsequentblock. Timestamp 164 indicates what time the blockchain protocol block160 was created within a certain range of error. According to certainblockchain protocol implementations provided via the blockchain servicesinterface 190, the distributed network of users (e.g., blockchainprotocol nodes) checks the timestamp 164 against their own known timeand will reject any block having a time stamp 164 which exceeds an errorthreshold, however, such functionality is optional and may be requiredby certain blockchain protocols and not utilized by others.

The blockchain protocol certification 166 defines the required sizeand/or data structure of the block payload 169 as well as certifyingcompliance with a particular blockchain protocol implementation, andthus, certifies the blockchain protocol block subscribes to, implements,and honors the particular requirements and configuration options for theindicated blockchain protocol. The blockchain protocol certification 166may also indicate a version of a given blockchain protocol and theblockchain protocol may permit limited backward and forwardcompatibility for blocks before nodes will begin to reject newblockchain protocol blocks for non-compliance.

Block type 167 is optional depending on the particular blockchainprotocol utilized. Where required for a specific blockchain protocolexposed via the blockchain services interface 190, a block type 167 mustbe indicated as being one of an enumerated list of permissible blocktypes 167 as will be described in greater detail below. Certainblockchain protocols use multiple different block types 167, all ofwhich may have varying payloads, but have a structure which is known apriori according to the blockchain protocol utilized, the declared blocktype 167, and the blockchain protocol certification 166 certifyingcompliance with such requirements. Non-compliance or an invalid blocktype or an unexpected structure or payload for a given declared blocktype 167 will result in the rejection of that block by network nodes.

Where a variable sized block payload 169 is utilized, the block type 167may indicate permissibility of such a variable sized block payload 169as well as indicate the index of the first byte in the block payload 169and the total size of the block payload 169. The block type 167 may beutilized to store other information relevant to the reading, accessing,and correct processing and interpretation of the block payload 169.

Block payload 169 data stored within the block may relate to any numberof a wide array of transactional data depending on the particularimplementation and blockchain protocol utilized, including payloadinformation related to, for example, financial transactions, ownershipinformation, data access records, document versioning, medical records,voting records, compliance and certification, educational transcripts,purchase receipts, digital rights management records, or literally anykind of data that is storable via a payload of a blockchain protocolblock 160, which is essentially any data capable of being digitized.Depending on the particular blockchain protocol chosen, the payload sizemay be a fixed size or a variable size, which in either case, will beutilized as at least part of the input for the hash that produces thepayload hash 163.

Various standard of proofs 165 may be utilized pursuant to theparticular blockchain protocol chosen, such as proof of work, hash valuerequirements, proof of stake, a key, or some other indicator such as aconsensus, or proof of consensus. Where consensus-based techniques areutilized, the blockchain consensus manager 191 provides consensusmanagement on behalf of the host organization 110, however, the hostorganization 110 may be operating only as one of many nodes for a givenblockchain protocol which is accessed by the host organization 110 viathe blockchain services interface 190 or alternatively, the hostorganization 110 may define and provide a particular blockchain protocolas a cloud based service to customers and subscribers (and potentiallyto non-authenticated public node participants), via the blockchainservices interface 190. Such a standard of proof 165 may be applied as arule that requires a hash value to be less than the proof standard, morethan the proof standard, or may require a specific bit sequence (such as10 zeros, or a defined binary sequence) or a required number of leadingor trailing zeroes (e.g., such as a hash of an input which results in 20leading or trailing zeros, which is computationally infeasible toprovide without a known valid input).

The hash algorithms used for the prior hash 161, the payload hash 163,or the authorized hashes 168 may be all of the same type or of differenttypes, depending on the particular blockchain protocol implementation.For instance, permissible hash functions include MD5, SHA-1, SHA-224,SHA-256, SHA-384, SHA-515, SHA-515/224, SHA-515/256, SHA-3 or anysuitable hash function resistant to pre-image attacks. There is also norequirement that a hash is computed only once. The results of a hashfunction may be reused as inputs into another or the same hash functionagain multiple times in order to produce a final result.

FIG. 1C depicts another exemplary architecture 102, with additionaldetail of the blockchain metadata definition manager 196 set forth ingreater detail, in accordance with described embodiments.

As can be seen here, there is a blockchain services interface 190 whichincludes the blockchain metadata definition manager 196. Also depictedas interacting with the various elements of the blockchain metadatadefinition manager 196 are the integration builder 153 which is capableof establishing network members to participate with the metadatadefinition and creation scheme, as well as the blockchain consensusmanager 191 and the block validator 192.

Internal to the blockchain metadata definition manager 196 there arevarious further elements, including a trust layer 154 and a centralizedtrust interface 152 capable of interacting with both tenants andcustomer organizations of the host organization as well asnon-subscribers to the services of the host organization. There isfurther depicted a metadata layer 156 having knowledge of all presentlydefined metadata definitions created and pushed to the accessibleblockchains, followed by a network organization 157 layer or a sharedledger, which serves as an interface to the variously accessibleblockchains. The state ledger 159 maintains the status of the accessibleblockchains and any connection or non-connection states while thehistory 161 block maintains a transaction history and logging for theplatform. The integration platform layer 158 provides an interface toother components within the host organization 110 to interface with thecomponents of the blockchain metadata definition manager 196 while theaccess control layer 162 is described in greater detail below, butprovides certain access rights and restrictions for private andpermissioned blockchains that are not fully open to public access.

Lastly, there is depicted various block ledger clients, including thecustomer of the host organization 164 which enjoys a full platformlicense as a subscribing customer of the host organization, while thenext block ledger client at block 166 having the partner #1 of the hostorganization enjoys only a basic license and a block ledger license withlimited user capabilities provided by the host organization, followed bythe last block ledger client at block 167 having the partner #2 of thehost organization which is limited to strictly a community license whichis available to all parties without subscription to any subscriptionrequired user services provided by the host organization.

From a high level, the depicted architecture provides similar servicesto public blockchain, except that, according to this particularembodiment, the shared ledger 157 operates a blockchain internal to thehost organization and defines the blockchain protocol of the hostednetwork org or a so called “shared ledger 157” as shown here. Thedepicted shared ledger 157 therefore permits customers and non-customersto interact with orgs and clients and non-subscribing clients, but notnecessarily third party instances since this particular embodimentoperates the shared ledger 157 internal to the host organization. Insuch a way, the functionality provided by public and private blockchainsmay still be realized and utilized, yet, because the shared ledger 157is wholly internal to the host organization 110, it is possible tooperate the shared ledger, utilizing Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT)modified which is modified to rely upon the host organization's 110trust layer 154 as a centralized trust authority (and providingvalidation of trust via the centralized trust interface 152) rather thanthe more customary use of a blockchain consensus manager 191 as istypical with other related embodiments described by this paper.

Regardless of the trust authority (e.g., be it the host organization 110or distributed nodes reaching consensus as managed by the blockchainconsensus manager 191), all data is transparent and cryptographicallyverifiable and data and users are not owned by a single party,notwithstanding being hosted internal to the host organization, and thehistory 161 and state ledger 159 provide for an enhanced audit trail.The integration builder 153 permits the execution of Smart contracts runon shared data as well as run against data which is owned by the networkorg 157 itself, such as metadata definitions which are accessible to allmembers but which nevertheless remain owned by the host organization.

In this particular embodiment, as alluded to above, because trust isestablished by the host organization itself, via the trust layer 154,there is no need for consensus, although consensus may optionally beutilized depending on the implementation.

According to particular embodiments, there is a multi-tenant ledgerplatform that works at the network level providing and provides anequivalent amount of transparency and provenance that is availablethrough Blockchain, yet is entirely within the control of the hostorganization 110, and thus provides for certain benefits, such as theestablishment of centralized trust by the host organization 110.

This architecture represents a compromise between a centralized anddecentralized database, and notably, deviates from the fundamentals ofblockchain which utilized distributed ledger technology and thusoperates as a distributed database. Nevertheless, depicted here is thehost organization 110 operating as a central party, by and through theblockchain services interface 190, which provides the trust on behalf ofall tenants, as opposed to blockchain where trust is delivered by thenetwork, and specifically by the nodes distributed throughout thenetwork reaching consensus.

Data and information which is persisted via the shared ledger 157 of thehost organization is wholly owned by the network and specifically by theestablished network members, yet the infrastructure is owned by thecentral party, in this case, the host organization 110 owns, controls,and manages the computing infrastructure and resources upon which theshared ledger 157 operates. Thus, if any established network membertrusts host organization as the central party, then the system andarchitecture works for that particular established network member.Notably, however, the established network members must place their trustinto a third party, in this case the host organization 110. If doing sois not possible, or not permissible based on the various data securityrequirements, regulations, or other concerns, then the DistributedLedger Technology (DLT) which requires consensus by the distributednodes, as managed by the blockchain consensus manager 191 is moreappropriate for those parties.

According to a particular embodiment, a tenant-focused network org or atenant focused shared ledger 157 is provided, again internal to the hostorganization 110 (and specifically the blockchain services interface 190of the host organization) in which all users are controlled by eachrespective customer organization rather than being controlled by acentralized customer. Stated differently, there may be tenant-specificcustomer control, such that any user for a given instance of the sharedledger 157 is controlled by the tenant or customer org having authorityover that instance of the shared ledger 157. In such a way, there can bemultiple instances of the shared ledger 157, each having its user-setcontrolled by a specific customer org, without having to negotiate orrely upon any other customer org, tenant, or any other entity to approveor deny user inclusion. This includes the tenant's customer org beingable to determine for itself which users are permitted in their instanceof the shared ledger 157 without having to go through the hostorganization, despite the instance of the shared ledger 157 beinginternally hosted by the host organization. This is because the hostorganization 110 effectively delegates full control over user inclusionfor each respective instance of the shared ledger 157 to the customerorg for which that particular shared ledger 157 operates.

According to certain embodiments, the shared ledger 157 embodies aMerkle Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) or a “Merkle-DAG” which is a datastructure similar to a native Merkle tree, except that a Merkle DAGstructure does not need to be balanced and its non-leaf nodes areallowed to contain data. In such a way, a Merkle-DAG is similar tonative Merkle trees in that they both embody a tree of hashes. While aMerkle tree connects transactions by sequence, the Merkle-DAG isdifferentiated insomuch that it connects transactions by hashes.Therefore, in a Merkle-DAG structure, addresses are represented by aMerkle hash. The resulting spider web of Merkle hashes links dataaddresses together by a Merkle graph. The directed acyclic graph (DAG)portion of the Merkle-DAG may therefore be utilized to modelinformation, such as modeling what specific address stores specificdata.

According to another embodiment, the data is encrypted andcryptographically verifiable within each instance of the shared ledger157. For instance, utilizing an extension of the blockchain servicesinterface 190 platform, any tenant having an instance of the sharedledger 157 may cryptographically verify any stored encrypted data withintheir instance of the shared ledger 157.

As noted above, for many customers, it is much preferred to lease orsubscribe to cloud-based computing infrastructure and software ratherthan having to own, operate, maintain, and configure such computinginfrastructure themselves. Where certain customers and partners requireonly transparency of their data and the ledger (e.g., and do notnecessarily require consensus amongst distributed nodes), such asolution represents a substantial improvement over competingalternatives. While blockchain technology presents many advantages, manyof which are described in greater detail elsewhere by this paper, thereality is that certain customers simply are not concerned withdecentralization of the data and the ledger, and thus, may realizesignificant benefits from utilizing a shared ledger 157 instance whichis entirely operated within the host organization 110 with a centralizedtrust interface 152, thus negating the need to participate in otherconsensus regimes common to distributed blockchain ledgers.

In accordance with one embodiment, the shared ledger 157 provides anaudit trail which is immutable by any party, including by the hostorganization 110, and thus, provides greater security, transparency, andassurance than a standard audit trail offered by competing solutions.Added value is thus brought to the tenants and customer organizationswhen utilizing the shared ledger 157 when compared with a standardcentralized system.

Further still, because the shared ledger 157 is multi-tenant aware(e.g., each tenant or customer organization may utilize its own instanceof the shared ledger 157) and metadata driven, with executable smartcontracts via triggers, there are multiple advantages for the hostorganization's tenant subscribers, above and beyond the platformbenefits offered by the host organization.

Consider the example of a large retailer wishing to go to marketutilizing blockchain to manage their supply chain of products rangingfrom clothing to fresh produce. Such an example may begin with cotton asraw materials for clothing and leafy greens to be sold in stores aspackaged produce. Ultimately, the large retailer may evolve to a fullblockchain solution, but initially, many customers may prefer to utilizea wholly controlled, single point of trust, and hosted solution such asthe shared ledger 157 provided by the host organization. Reasons forinitially beginning with the hosted shared ledger solution may to enablea single login or a single authentication portal via their current hostorganization which already provides them with cloud-based services,which will then enable the large retailer to experiment with theDistributed Ledger Technology (DLT) while permitting the large retailerto view their validated ledger information from the single sign-onportal.

Such a structure would thus allow the large retailer, by way of example,to place their trust into the immutability of the data due to the databeing stored within the immutable shared ledger 157, albeit within thehost organization 110. This is possible because even the hostorganization cannot alter the shared ledger 157 audit trail. This is incontrast to the use of prior cloud based platforms which provides astandardized audit trail, yet because the audit trail is not immutableby all parties, it could theoretically be manipulated by maliciousactors, albeit such a scenario is highly unlikely. Nevertheless, theshared ledger 157 utilizing modified DLT technologies is by designimmutable by all parties, in terms of its audit trail, and thus, ahigher level of trust may be appropriately placed into the centralizedtrust authority, such as the host organization, given that even the hostorganization lacks the capability to alter the historical records storedwithin the shared ledger 157.

The same logic may apply to companies wishing to utilize such a ledgerinternally within one company and its subsidiaries as doing so willpermit greater integration and data sharing amongst the company and itssubsidiaries, while benefiting from the immutability of the sharedledger, above and beyond that which may be provided by competingsolutions, such as locally and remotely operated databases, or astrictly on-demand cloud based solution.

Consider for example, a mortgage division wishing to share sales leadinformation with their commercial banking division or a healthcarecompany having multiple divisions across the country, which are not wellintegrated amongst the various divisions, resulting in duplicativeoperational centers, such as a claims processing group in northernCalifornia and another claims processing group in Southern California,which currently lack full integration, yet could migrate to the hostedshared ledger 157 solution to realize greater integration, trusted audittrails through the immutability of the records written into theplatform, and in turn, improved ease of use and transparency of datautilized by the various divisions of the large healthcare provider.

Therefore, according to a particular embodiment, there are operations bya system of a host organization that include operating an interface to ashared ledger on behalf of a plurality of authorized networkparticipants for the shared ledger, in which the shared ledger persistsdata via a plurality of distributed shared ledger nodes; generating anetwork org within the shared ledger to store the data on behalf of afounder org as a first one of the plurality of authorized networkparticipants; receiving input from the founder org defining a pluralityof partner orgs as additional authorized network participants for thenetwork org, in which all of the authorized network participants haveread access to the data stored by the network org via the shared ledgerwithout replicating the data; receiving input from the founder orgdefining permissions for each of the partner orgs to interact with thenetwork org within the shared ledger; writing metadata to the sharedledger defining at least the authorized network participants for thenetwork org and the permissions defined for each of the partner orgs;receiving requests from the authorized network participants to interactwith the network org; and transacting with the shared ledger infulfillment of the requests.

According to the operations of another embodiment, the shared ledgerincludes a declarative, metadata driven, cryptographically verifiablemulti-network (multi-tenant) shared ledger operating on a relationaldatabase system internal to the host organization; in which the methodfurther includes: assigning a unique network ID to each of the partnerorgs and to the founder org; and partitioning a table of the relationaldatabase system having the data of the network org stored thereupon bynetwork ID.

According to the operations of another embodiment, the relationaldatabase system immutably stores an audit log recording all insertions,deletions, and updates affecting the data stored within the network orgvia the plurality of shared ledger nodes.

According to the operations of another embodiment, transacting with theshared ledger in fulfillment of the requests includes at least: (i)retrieving the metadata for the network org from the shared ledger; (ii)validating each request originates from one of the authorized networkparticipants for the network org; (iii) validating each requestspecifies an interaction by the founder org or an interaction by one ofthe partner orgs in compliance with the permissions defined by theretrieved metadata for the network org; and (iv) transacting with thenetwork org via the shared ledger in fulfillment of the request pursuantto successful validation.

According to the operations of another embodiment, the permissionsdefined by the metadata for each of the partner orgs include one or moreof: write access to the metadata at the request of one of the partnerorgs, the write access to the metadata granted by the founder org; andwrite access to the data stored by the network org at the request of oneof the partner orgs, the write access to the data granted by the founderorg.

According to the operations of another embodiment, the permissionsdefined by the metadata for each of the partner orgs include permissionto create new users associated with one of the partner orgs.

According to the operations of another embodiment, the permissionsdefined by the metadata for each of the partner orgs include permissionto add new partner orgs as authorized network participants for thenetwork org.

According to the operations of another embodiment, the permissionsdefined by the metadata further include one or more of: permission forthe founder org granted by the founder org to modify the metadata;permission for the founder org granted by the founder org to modify thedata stored by the network org; permission for the founder org grantedby the founder org to remove one of the partner orgs from the networkorg and eliminating the removed partner org as one of the authorizednetwork participants for the network org; permission for the founder orggranted by the founder org to add a new partner orgs as an authorizednetwork participant for the network org; permission for the founder orggranted by the founder org to declare new business logic common acrossall of the authorized network participants for the network org; andpermission for the founder org granted by the founder org to declare newbusiness rules common across all of the authorized network participantsfor the network org.

According to the operations of another embodiment, the data stored bythe network org within the shared ledger includes one or more of:application data records common across all of the authorized networkparticipants for the network org; business data records common acrossall of the authorized network participants for the network org; declaredbusiness logic common across all of the authorized network participantsfor the network org; and declared business rules common across all ofthe authorized network participants for the network org.

According to another embodiment such operations may further include:receiving a request from one of the authorized network participants tostore localized data via the shared ledger; storing the localized datavia the shared ledger; and in which the stored localized data isaccessible to only to the authorized network participant havingoriginated the request to store the localized data and in which thestored localized data is not exposed to the other authorized networkparticipants.

According to the operations of another embodiment, the stored localizeddata includes at least one of: a modification to the data stored by thenetwork org accessible only to the authorized network participant havingoriginated the request to store the localized data; a modification toapplication data records common across all of the authorized networkparticipants for the network org, in which the modification isaccessible only to the authorized network participant having originatedthe request to store the localized data; a modification to business datarecords common across all of the authorized network participants for thenetwork org, in which the modification is accessible only to theauthorized network participant having originated the request to storethe localized data; a modification declared business logic common acrossall of the authorized network participants for the network org, in whichthe modification is accessible only to the authorized networkparticipant having originated the request to store the localized data;and a modification declared business rules common across all of theauthorized network participants for the network org, in which themodification is accessible only to the authorized network participanthaving originated the request to store the localized data.

According to the operations of another embodiment, the stored localizeddata includes a new user account for the authorized network participanthaving originated the request to store the localized data and defineduser permissions for the new user account; and in which each authorizednetwork participant has distinct user controls without affecting thedata stored by the network org within the shared ledger.

According to the operations of another embodiment, the authorizednetwork participant having originated the request to store the localizeddata is a customer organization having a plurality of users within thehost organization; in which the stored localized data includes a newuser account for the authorized network participant having originatedthe request to store the localized data; and in which the new useraccount is distinct from any user account associated with the pluralityof user accounts for the customer organization.

According to the operations of another embodiment, the authorizednetwork participant having originated the request to store the localizeddata is a customer organization having tenancy within the hostorganization; in which the stored localized data includes a customerorganization specific workflow to execute against CRM data for thecustomer organization based on changes affecting the data stored by thenetwork org.

According to the operations of another embodiment, all changes affectingthe data and metadata stored by the network org are cryptographicallyverifiable providing a full audit log including at least what data waschanged, when the data was changed, and who made the changes to thedata.

According to the operations of another embodiment, each of theauthorized network participants are tenants of the host organization.

According to the operations of another embodiment, the founder org is afirst one of a plurality of tenants of the host organization havingrequested generation of the network org; and in which each of thepartner orgs are tenants of the host organization different than thefounder org and having been added as authorized network participants forthe shared ledger by the founder org.

According to the operations of another embodiment, the system of thehost organization embodies hardware, software, and logic elements toimplement cloud based functionality providing on-demand services,on-demand database services, and cloud computing services to subscribingcustomer organizations; and in which the founder org and each of thepartner orgs are selected from amongst the subscriber customerorganizations; and in which the cloud based functionality is accessibleto the subscribing customer organizations over a public Internet.

According to the operations of another embodiment, the network org isrepresented by the host organization as one of a plurality of customerorganizations of the host organization.

According to the operations of another embodiment, the shared ledgerincludes a relational database system internal to the host organization;in which a copy of the data stored by the network org is accessible fromeach of a plurality of data centers of the host organization via one ormore of the plurality of shared ledger nodes; and in which the methodfurther includes: determining a first one of the plurality of sharedledger nodes is inaccessible based on an outage at one of the pluralityof datacenters of the host organization or pursuant to a non-responsefrom the first one of the plurality of shared ledger nodes; andtransacting with the network org stored by the shared ledger from asecond one of the plurality of shared ledger nodes subsequent to thedetermination.

According to the operations of another embodiment, the shared ledgerimplements a Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) data store internal tothe host organization; in which a copy of the data stored by the networkorg is accessible from each of the plurality of shared ledger nodesdistributed across a plurality of geographically dispersed data centersof the host organization; and in which the DLT data store immutablystores all data within assets added to the DLT data store.

According to the operations of another embodiment, data deletiontransactions at the network org are represented by new assets specifyingthe data deleted from the network org without removing any data from theDLT data store; in which data update transactions at the network org arerepresented by new assets specifying a current version of the dataupdated at the network org without removing any data from the DLT datastore; and in which all prior versions of the data transacted to thenetwork org are immutably persisted by the DLT data store and availablevia an audit log for the DLT data store including any data specified ashaving been deleted and all prior versions of the data transacted to thenetwork org having been affected by one or more updates.

According to the operations of another embodiment, the host organizationoperates as a centralized trust authority to validate any transactionagainst the DLT data store on behalf of the authorized networkparticipants for the network org.

According to the operations of another embodiment, the DLT data store isimplemented via a hardware and software infrastructure operating whollyunder the host organization's exclusive control.

According to the operations of another embodiment, operating theinterface to the shared ledger includes operating a blockchain servicesinterface to a blockchain on behalf of the authorized networkparticipants for the shared ledger; in which each of the authorizednetwork participants operate as a participating node on the blockchainand transact with the blockchain via the blockchain services interfaceoperated by the host organization.

According to the operations of another embodiment, a copy of the datastored by the network org is accessible from any of the authorizednetwork participants operating as participating nodes on the blockchainand further accessible from any other participating node on theblockchain; in which the blockchain immutably stores all record added tothe blockchain; and in which the data stored by the network org affectedby deletions and updates remain accessible from the blockchain as anon-current version of the data via an audit log for the blockchain.

According to the operations of another embodiment, the host organizationoperates a participating node on the blockchain; and in which theblockchain operates external from the host organization and operatesoutside of the host organization's exclusive control.

According to the operations of another embodiment, the network orgincludes one of a plurality of distinct network orgs operating via theshared ledger; or alternatively in which the network org operates on aunique shared ledger instance of the host organization and in whichdifferent network orgs operate on other shared ledger instances withinthe host organization separate from the unique shared ledger instanceupon which the network org operates.

According to the operations of another embodiment, the data stored bythe network org is associated with a first declared application and asecond declared application, both the first and the second declaredapplications being utilized by the founder org and the plurality ofpartner orgs; and in which the permissions defined by the metadataspecify different access permissions to the data stored by the networkorg based on whether each of the partner organizations is accessing thedata utilizing the first declared application or the second declaredapplication.

According to the operations of another embodiment, the metadata writtento the shared ledger further defines a plurality of entity types and aplurality of field definitions for each of the plurality of entitytypes; and in which the method further includes: generating a virtualtable within a database system of the host organization; structuring thevirtual table at the database system of the host organization based onthe metadata written to the shared ledger, in which the entity typesfrom the metadata written to the shared ledger are represented as tableswithin the virtual table and further in which the one or more new fielddefinitions for each of the plurality of entity types are represented ascolumns within the tables at the virtual table.

According to the operations of another embodiment, the virtual tableincludes a materialized view hosted at the database system of the hostorganization structured based on the metadata declared for the newapplication; in which the materialized view hosted at the databasesystem of the host organization does not store any data associated withthe new application; and in which SQL queries requesting read-onlyaccess are processed against the materialized view by translating theread-only SQL queries into a shared ledger transaction to retrieve therequested data from the shared ledger.

According to the operations of another embodiment, the metadata writtento the shared ledger further defines a plurality of entity types and aplurality of field definitions for each of the plurality of entitytypes; and in which the method further includes: retrieving the metadatafrom the shared ledger, including the plurality of entity types, the oneor more new field definitions for each of the plurality of entity types,and any field types applied to the one or more field definitions;generating a materialized view of the data stored via the shared ledgerwithin a virtual table at the host organization by structuring thevirtual table based on the defined metadata; in which the materializedview represents the structure of the data associated stored by theshared ledger without storing the data within the materialized view atthe host organization.

According to another embodiment such operations may further include:receiving, at the host organization, an SQL statement from a userdevice, in which the SQL statement is directed toward the materializedview requesting an SQL update or an SQL insert for the data persisted tothe blockchain and associated with the new application; processing theSQL statement against the materialized view by translating the SQLstatement requesting the SQL update or the SQL insert into acorresponding shared ledger transaction to update or add the dataassociated with the new application at the shared ledger; and issuing anacknowledgement to the user device confirming successful processing ofthe SQL statement against the materialized view pursuant to thecorresponding shared ledger transaction being accepted by the sharedledger and successfully updating or adding the data associated with thenew application at the shared ledger.

According to another embodiment such operations may further include:receiving an SQL statement directed toward the materialized view at thehost organization; in which the SQL statement specifies one or more of(i) a SELECT from SQL statement, (ii) an INSERT into SQL statement, and(iii) an UPDATE set SQL statement; and in which the SQL statementreceived is processed by translating the SQL statement into acorresponding shared ledger transaction and executing the correspondingshared ledger transaction against the shared ledger in fulfillment ofthe SQL statement directed toward the materialized view at the hostorganization.

According to a particular embodiment, there is non-transitorycomputer-readable storage media having instructions stored thereuponthat, when executed by a processor of a system having at least aprocessor and a memory therein, the instructions cause the system toperform operations including: operating an interface to a shared ledgeron behalf of a plurality of authorized network participants for theshared ledger, in which the shared ledger persists data via a pluralityof distributed shared ledger nodes; generating a network org within theshared ledger to store the data on behalf of a founder org as a firstone of the plurality of authorized network participants; receiving inputfrom the founder org defining a plurality of partner orgs as additionalauthorized network participants for the network org, in which all of theauthorized network participants have read access to the data stored bythe network org via the shared ledger without replicating the data;receiving input from the founder org defining permissions for each ofthe partner orgs to interact with the network org within the sharedledger; writing metadata to the shared ledger defining at least theauthorized network participants for the network org and the permissionsdefined for each of the partner orgs; receiving requests from theauthorized network participants to interact with the network org; andtransacting with the shared ledger in fulfillment of the requests.

According to another embodiment, there is a system to execute at a hostorganization, in which the system includes: a memory to storeinstructions; a processor to execute instructions; in which theprocessor is to execute a shared ledger interface to a shared ledger onbehalf of a plurality of authorized network participants for the sharedledger, in which the shared ledger persists data via a plurality ofdistributed shared ledger nodes; in which the processor is to generate anetwork org within the shared ledger to store the data on behalf of afounder org as a first one of the plurality of authorized networkparticipants; a receive interface to receive input from the founder orgdefining a plurality of partner orgs as additional authorized networkparticipants for the network org, in which all of the authorized networkparticipants have read access to the data stored by the network org viathe shared ledger without replicating the data; the receive interface tofurther receive input from the founder org defining permissions for eachof the partner orgs to interact with the network org within the sharedledger; in which the shared ledger interface is to metadata to theshared ledger defining at least the authorized network participants forthe network org and the permissions defined for each of the partnerorgs; the receive interface to further receive requests from theauthorized network participants to interact with the network org; and inwhich the shared ledger interface further is to transact with the sharedledger in fulfillment of the requests.

Notably, the shared ledger provides similar decentralizationcapabilities as blockchain, although as noted, the shared ledger may runon a shared ledger instance internal to the host organization, may runon a public blockchain external to the host organization, may run on aprivate blockchain external to the host organization or a privateblockchain implemented by the host organization, or the shared ledgermay run on a distributed relational database system.

One problem with conventional solutions is that anytime two or moreorganizations agree to share data, ultimately at least one of theorganizations must go back to the founder organization of the datarepository for help to change access permissions, or to make any changesto the structure of the shared data. Worse yet, there are situationswhere a founder organization of the data repository must go to anotherthird party for assistance, for example, to delegate certainadministrative rights.

The shared ledger enables a founder organization to specify what otherentities may operate as partner organizations and further permits thefounder organization to delegate enhanced administrative privileges tothemselves and to other partner organizations. For instance, partnerorganizations may be enabled to create users or to modify metadatadefining the structure of the network org data persisted or saved by theshared ledger. Moreover, the shared ledger implements a declarative,metadata driven, cryptographically verifiable multi-network(multi-tenant) shared ledger in accordance with certain embodimentswhich permits the sharing of data amongst the founder org and partnerorgs without having to replicate any data whatsoever in fulfillment ofthe sharing capabilities or to benefit from the distributed nature ofthe shared ledger's distributed nodes.

Consider for example a loyalty rewards program implemented by a creditcard company such as American Express. It may be the case that Amexwishes to share data with multiple different partner organizations sothat information may be gathered within a centralized location to thebenefit of Amex as the founder organization and the partnerorganizations. With prior solutions, each of the partner organizationswould continually need to go back to Amex for help anytime the partnerorganizations needed to add users to the system for data access, or makeany changes whatsoever to data stored by the system, and so forth.

However, with the use of the shared ledger, a founder org such as Amexmay delegate certain rights to the partner orgs. For example, Amex maypermit the partner orgs to create their own user accounts or modifybusiness logic shared by the founder org and the partner org or createlocalized data (e.g., such as a CRM flow to execute for one of thepartner orgs) specific to only one of the partner orgs without affectingthe common pool of data in the shared ledger shared by all the partnerorgs and the founder org, or to perform certain data modificationoperations, such as permitting certain applications for the partner orgto have write access to the shared data, and so forth.

According to a particular embodiment, the host organization implements,manages, maintains, and controls the entirety of the computinginfrastructure for the shared ledger, yet permits the founder org todelegate or assign certain rights to themselves (e.g., the founder orgmay assign privileges to the founder org) or to the partner orgs, suchas write access to stored data or write and update access to the storedmetadata defining the structure of the stored data on behalf of thepartner orgs and the founder org for a given network org.

According to a particular embodiment, each of the founder orgs and thepartner orgs are an existing customer organization or tenant of the hostorganization and are thus enabled, through participation with the sharedledger as an authorized network participant, to define their own accesscontrols for themselves and for their users, without having to solicitadministrative support from the host organization.

Moreover, because the shared ledger provides all the information in acryptographic manner, a type of an audit trail or fully transparentaudit log is created, permitting the founder org and possibly thepartner orgs to see who changed what data and when, thus allowing a fulltraceback as to the who, what, where, when, and why changes to the datarecords were made, as may be required by law, accounting principles, orcontractual obligations.

Notably, with the shared ledger there is only one single repository forthe data of the host org, and data is not replicated for each of thepartner nodes (although certain distributed technologies do provide asingle data repository which is distributed amongst a plurality ofnodes). Notably, however, there are no synchronization mechanismsprovided because the data is always persisted via the shared ledger andis not copied elsewhere and referenced as is the case with many priorsolutions to the problem of data sharing.

According to certain embodiments, some or all of the partners may createtheir own business rules and business logic which is then written to thecommon pool of data stored by the network org within a shared ledger. Inother embodiments, partners may write their own partner org specificrules and business logic which is persisted via the shared ledger, butnot placed within the common pool of data for the network org andtherefore is not exposed to the other partner orgs or to the founderorg. This may occur when a partner org creates a CRM data flow toexecute based on modifications to the data stored by the network orgwithin the shared ledger, in which case, the common pool of data isreferenced by the partner org's CRM data flow, but the CRM data flowitself is only useful for that particular partner org. Notably, however,common business rules and logic for all authorized network participantsis not only feasible, but very likely to occur on any given network orghaving data shared by multiple distinct entities.

Further still, despite the data being persisted within a shared ledger,it is provided in accordance with certain embodiments that a data-lessvirtual table is created within the host organization as a “materializedview” in which founder or and the partner org may issue and process SQLbased queries against the materialized view as if it were a traditionalrelational database table, notwithstanding the fact that certainembodiments of the shared ledger may be persisted to a non-relationaldata store, such as a DLT based data store within the host organizationor a blockchain (private or public), while in other situations, theshared ledger may be permissibly persisted to a relational database, solong as it is cryptographically verifiable.

With such embodiments, a materialized view may be provided for every oneof the authorized network participants (e.g., founders and partners)which then permits SQL transactions to be processed against thematerialized view from the perspective of such participants, with thehost organization then providing the necessary translation from thereceived SQL statements to the necessary shared ledger transactioncommands, be a blockchain, DLT data store, or even another relationaldatabase store.

According to certain embodiments, the shared ledger is multi-tenantaware and multi-network aware, with every authorized network participantbeing assigned a unique network ID and further in which all data storedwithin a network org via the shared ledger is then partitioned bynetwork ID and/or referenceable via the network ID, thus permitting dataspecific to only one or more specified authorized network participantsto be referenced.

According to another embodiment, the same common pool of data for anetwork org may be subjected to different access permissions based onthe declared app being utilized to access such data. For example, whereAmex is a founder org and Chevron is a partner org, it may be that afirst application for inventory management used by the network orgallows Chevron only read access to the common pool of data, and yet, thesame partner org, Chevron, when utilizing a different app to access thesame common pool of data, such as a customer rewards points app, permitsChevron to have write access to some of the data stored by the networkorg, thus permitting different permissions based on the declared app andnot just based on the particular partner org.

FIG. 1D depicts another exemplary architecture 103, which depicts theintegration of host organization services with the blockchain servicesinterface 190 in greater detail, in accordance with describedembodiments.

In particular, there is now depicted both an integration builder 153 andaccessible cloud platforms 186, each of which are interfaced into theblockchain metadata definition manager 196 of the blockchain servicesinterface. The Integration builder 153 provides a variety offunctionality which collectively permits for entity and metadatadefinition into a shared ledger 157 which is hosted internal to the hostorganization or which permits the entity and metadata definition into ablockchain which is made accessible through the host organization, evenwhen such a blockchain is a public blockchain which is not under theultimate control of the host organization.

Specifically depicted at the integration builder 153 is a one-clickblockchain connector 131 permitting users to click and drag componentsto link their application with an available blockchain internal to thehost organization or accessible via the host organization, thusspecifying a linkage between an application and a blockchain, withoutthe user necessarily having to write code to establish the link.

The network formation manager 132 permits users to define what entities(e.g., applications, etc.), partners, tenants, users, customerorganizations, etc., have access to the information written into theblockchain via their application.

The entity definition setup GUI 133 permits users to define, withoutwriting code, an application or entity to which specified metadata willapply. For instance, this may be a new entity specified at the entitydefinition setup GUI 133 or this may be an existing application, whichis to be made compatible with the metadata definitions specified andestablished via the metadata definition GUI 134.

Lastly, the blockchain asset or coin deployment 135 permits a user todeploy their specified entities, with defined metadata and anyassociated applications, partners, customer orgs, tenants, users, etc.,as specified via the network formation manager 132 onto the connectedblockchain for use by applications or anyone having connectivity andwhere appropriate, relevant access rights. Once the entity and metadatadefined via the GUIs are deployed onto the blockchain, they may beutilized by any application or entity having access and relevant accessrights to the blockchain in question. Stated differently, the blockchainasset or coin deployment 135 component serves to “publish” or “go live”with the defined entities and metadata.

Further depicted are the accessible cloud platforms 186, via whichinformation stored outside of the linked blockchain, yet accessible viathe host organization, may be linked through a defined entity.

Therefore, if a user creates a new application and defines metadata forthat application and deploys the defined entity and metadata onto theblockchain chosen, then it is further permissible to retrieve,reference, read and write data stored on variously accessible cloudplatforms 171 accessible via the host organization which are notpersisted within the chosen blockchain in question for that particularapplication.

For example, an application on the shared ledger 157 or anotherblockchain accessible via the host organization may retrieve data fromthe commerce cloud 171 provided by the host organization, or retrievedata from the marketing cloud 172 provided by the host organization ormay reference information from third party and externally linked clouds173, such as the externally linked clouds depicted here as 173A, 173B,and 173C, which may in reality correspond to, for example, an Amazon AWScloud service interface, or a Microsoft Azure cloud service interface,or an Oracle cloud service interface, etc. So long as such third partyclouds are externally linked via the host organization services 107,then they may be referenced by entities and applications which persisttheir data within a blockchain accessible via the host organization orhosted internal to the host organization.

Further depicted is a more detailed breakout of the network org sharedledger 157, which as noted previously, may provide to customer orgswishing to avoid full deployment to a public blockchain, certainDistributed Ledger Technology (DLT) functional aspects, yet provideinternally hosted ledger capabilities (within the host organization)which implements a centralized trust authority via the trust layer 154,rather than requiring consensus. Optionally, the shared ledger 157 maypermit the customer org to reference consent management protocols 157Afor testing or validation purposes, in which the customer organizationmay simply provide their own consensus for any transaction, as they arepermitted to do within an internally hosted shared ledger 157 for whichthe customer organization has its own instance, and thus, ultimateauthority. This is similar in function to relying upon the centralizedtrust interface 152, yet permits the customer organization to utilizeDLT based consensus management as would be observed on a publicblockchain, while retaining control over consensus management decisions.Later, if the customer org transitions their application to a publicblockchain, then their migration path will be simplified as there willalready be integration with consensus management components.

The consent management 157A and 157B permits the customer org utilizingthe shared ledger 157 to define which entities, users, partners,customer orgs, etc. have authority to reference, read, write, update, ordelete transactions associated with a defined application as well aspermit those same entities, users, partners, customer orgs, etc., togrant authority for their data to be referenced. The metadata definitiondeployment 157C module permits defined metadata to be written to theblockchain in question or written into the shared ledger 157 as an assetor as a coin, subsequent to which, entities, applications, and any codeinteracting with information for which metadata has been defined must bein compliance with the defined metadata, and may be forced intocompliance via smart contract execution which performs metadatacompliance validation.

FIG. 1E depicts another exemplary architecture 104, which depicts anexemplary data flow utilizing the blockchain services interface 190, inaccordance with described embodiments.

In particular, as shown here, there is a partner user which interactswith the blockchain services interface 190 and specifically with theblockchain explorer through which accessible blockchains may bediscovered and referenced. The partner user may then update and readdata, where permissions are appropriate, from the blockchain via theREST API as depicted at element 178. The blockchain persists theinformation for a defined entity application in compliance with themetadata definitions described previously.

The REST API 178 or the “Representational State Transfer” API is asoftware architectural style that defines a set of constraints used forcreating and utilizing Web services. Web services that conform to theREST architectural style, termed RESTful Web services (RWS), provideinteroperability between computer systems on the public Internet.RESTful Web services allow the requesting systems to access andmanipulate textual representations of Web resources by using a uniformand predefined set of stateless operations, while other supported Webservices, such as SOAP Web services, expose their own arbitrary sets ofoperations.

Such Web services may include any application entity that may beidentified, named, addressed, or handled, in any way permitted by theapplication, via the public Internet, with so called RESTful Web servicepermitting requests to be made to a resource's URI which will then inturn elicit a responsive payload formatted in HTML, XML, JSON, or someother selected format. Utilizing a stateless protocol and standardoperations, RESTful systems aim for fast performance, reliability, andthe ability to grow, by re-using components that can be managed andupdated without affecting the system as a whole, even while it isrunning, thus permitting fuller interoperability between the depictedblockchain and the connected elements, such as the partner user, thehost org users, and the integration builder 153.

As shown here, there are blockchain events which are translated intoplatform events and transmitted to the accessible cloud platforms 186.

Host organization users may interact with such accessible cloudplatforms 186 to create and record data, and where appropriate, data andevents may be pushed back into the blockchain through configured virtualobjects which communicate with the REST API to write information intothe blockchain or to reference information in the blockchain or toupdate state information for managed events within the blockchain.

Additionally depicted here is a blockchain administrator which, forexample, may utilize the previously described GUIs to define metadata atthe integration builder 153, thus permitting the blockchainadministrator to define network participants which are recorded in theglobal application register, or to deploy an application which is thenreferenced by the REST API at the blockchain services interface, as wellas to define metadata and permissions for the entity applicationdeployed, thus ensuring that information for that deployed applicationwhen written into the blockchain must be in compliance with the definedmetadata for such information associated with the application. Suchcompliance may be enforced by the smart contracts depicted here withinthe blockchain at the blockchain services interface 190.

As noted previously, the blockchain may be an internally hostedblockchain, such as shared ledger 157 hosted internally and whollycontrolled by the host organization, or the blockchain may be any publicblockchain accessible via the host organization.

FIG. 2A depicts another example architecture 200, with additional detailof a blockchain and a forked blockchain, in accordance with describedembodiments. In this example architecture, the blockchain consensusmanager 191 and the permissions manager 181 operate to support consensuson read and access control processes as further described in relation toFIGS. 10-12.

More particularly, there is now depicted a primary blockchain (e.g., aconsensus blockchain) which begins with a genesis block 141 (sometimescalled a root block) followed by a series of standard blocks 142, eachhaving a header which is formed based at least in part from a hash ofthe header of the block which precedes it. There is additionallydepicted a forked blockchain formed with an initial fork root block 144,followed by then a series of standard blocks 142. Because each block inthe blockchain contains a hash of the immediately preceding block storedin the previous hash, a link going back through the chain from eachblock is effectively created via the blockchain and is a key componentto making it prohibitively difficult or computationally infeasible tomaliciously modify the chain.

As depicted, the primary blockchain includes a single fork which isoriginating from the fork block 143. As shown here, the genesis block141 is a special block that begins the primary blockchain and isdifferent from the other blocks because it is the first block in theprimary blockchain and therefore, cannot by definition, include a hashof any previous block. The genesis block 141 marks the beginning of theprimary blockchain for the particular blockchain protocol beingutilized. The blockchain protocol governs the manner by which theprimary blockchain grows, what data may be stored within, and forkedblockchains are created, as well as the validity of any block and anychain may be verified via the block validator 192 of the hostorganization or any other participating network node of the blockchainpursuant to the rules and requirements set forth by the blockchainprotocol certification 166 which is embedded within the genesis block141 and then must be certified to and complied with by every subsequentblock in the primary blockchain or any forked blockchain.

The blockchain protocol certification 166 inside each block in thegenesis chain defines the default set of rules and configurationparameters that allows for the creation of forks and the modification ofrules and configuration parameters in those forks, if any. Someblockchain protocol implementations permit no variation ornon-compliance with the default set of rules as established via theblockchain protocol certification 166 and therefore, any fork will bethe result of pending consensus for multiple competing and potentiallyvalid primary blockchains. Once consensus is reached (typically afterone or two cycles of new block formations) then the branch havingconsensus will be adopted and the fork truncated, thus returning to asingle primary consensus blockchain. Conversely, in otherimplementations, a forked blockchain may permissibly be created andcontinue to exist indefinitely alongside the primary blockchain, so longas the forked blockchain complies with the blockchain protocolcertification 166 and permissible variation of rules and configurationparameters for a forked blockchain within that blockchain protocol.

Fork block 143 anchors the forked blockchain to the primary blockchainsuch that both the primary blockchain and the forked chain areconsidered valid and permissible chains where allowed pursuant to theblockchain protocol certification 166. Normally, in a blockchain, allnon-consensus forks are eventually ignored or truncated and thusconsidered invalid except for the one chain representing the longestchain having consensus. Nevertheless, the fork block 143 expands beyondthe conventional norms of prior blockchain protocols by operating as andappearing as though it is a standard block 142, while additionallyincluding a reference to a fork hash 149 identifying the first block ofthe permissible forked blockchain, represented here as the fork rootblock 144 for the valid forked blockchain. The fork root block 144 ofthe forked blockchain is then followed by standard blocks, each having aheader based on a prior valid block's hash, and will continueindefinitely.

According to a particular embodiment, the forked blockchain utilizessome variation from the rules and configuration parameters utilized bydefault within the primary consensus blockchain, resulting in the needfor a valid forked blockchain. Therefore, the variation of the rules andconfiguration parameters are encoded within a new blockchain protocolcertification 166 for the fork root block 144 which, as noted above,must remain compliant with the original rules and valid range ofconfiguration parameters as set forth by the blockchain protocolcertification 166 of the original genesis block 141 for the primaryblockchain. Because the fork root block 144 must continue to carry theoriginal blockchain protocol certification 166, a forked blockchainprotocol certification may be stored within a block payload 169 segmentof the fork root block 144 thus establishing the rules and permissibleconfiguration parameters of subsequent standard blocks 142 in the forkedblockchain.

For instance, a forked blockchain may be utilized to support declarativesmart actions as enabled by the host organization where a forkedblockchain of a public or private blockchain is customized via a newblockchain protocol certification 166 to support both the declarativeestablishment of smart actions and their required information captureprovisions as defined by an administrator as well as the ability to mapthe data captured with a transaction utilizing such a declared smartaction back to the cloud platform entity as provided by the hostorganization.

When a new blockchain protocol certification 166 is applied for a validfork, its rules and configuration is applied to all subsequent standardblocks for the fork and all subsequent sub-forks, where additional forksare permitted, and enforced by the participating nodes as though theforked blockchain were an original primary blockchain. Such forks may bedesirable for certain customers seeking to apply a specialized set ofrules or configurations for a particular group, such as a working group,a certain sub-type of transactions, or some other variation from theprimary blockchain where an entirely separate “sidechain” is notrequired or desirable. A forked blockchain is distinguishable from asidechain as it remains part of the same blockchain protocol and ispermanently connected with the primary blockchain at the fork block 143with a returned fork hash 149 being returned to and immutably writteninto the primary consensus blockchain where it will remain via the chainhashing scheme for all subsequent standard blocks of the primaryblockchain. Stated very simply, the forked blockchain is explicitly tiedto the primary blockchain via the fork block 143. Conversely, asidechain may be an entirely distinct blockchain protocol for which anagreed rate of exchange or conversion factor is applied to allinformation or value passed between the primary blockchain and anysidechain without any explicit reference or fork hash 149 embeddedwithin the primary blockchain.

Sidechaining therefore is a mechanism by which declared smart actionsfor assets, tokens, value, or payload entries from one blockchain may besecurely used within a completely separate blockchain via a pre-definedexchange or conversion scheme, and yet, be permissibly moved back to theoriginal chain, if necessary. By convention, the original blockchain isreferred to as the main chain or the primary blockchain, whereas anyadditional blockchains which allow users to transact within themutilizing the tokens, values, or payload of the main chain are referredto as sidechains. For instance, there may be a private blockchain with adefined linkage to a public blockchain, thus allowing tokens, value, orpayload data to be securely moved between the public blockchain and theprivate blockchain.

Consider for instance the host organization's use of a previouslyexisting blockchain for the implementation of the services provided bythe blockchain metadata definition manager 196. It may be advantageousto utilize an existing blockchain, but then creating a specializedsidechain or a forked blockchain specifically for the services providedby blockchain metadata definition manager 196 yet remain in compliancewith the blockchain protocol certification 166 required by the primary(consensus) blockchain. In other instances, a modified DistributedLedger Technology such as the shared ledger 157 at FIG. 1C may beutilized which is a hosted ledger fully under the control of the hostorganization, and as such, it may not be necessary to side-chain from aprimary chain. Still other examples may include the host organizationproviding and defining the blockchain protocol for a public blockchain,in which case the host organization may define the blockchain protocolutilized in such a way that the extended capabilities of the blockchainmetadata definition manager 196 (see e.g., FIG. 1A) are native to theprotocol, thus requiring no side-chaining or conversely, the hostorganization may define and operate a public blockchain which has alimited sub-set of functionality available to the public and then extendthe capabilities of the blockchain metadata definition manager 196 byside-chaining off of the public blockchain to provide the enhancedfunctionality.

According to described embodiments, the blockchain protocolcertification 166 defining the protocol rules for a forked chain may bedeveloped in any relevant programming or scripting language, such as,Python, Ruby, Perl, JavaScript, PHP, Scheme, VBScript, Java, Microsoft.Net, C++, C#, C, or a custom-created language for defining the protocolrules.

Under normal operating conditions, even conventional blockchainsnaturally fork from time to time, however, with previously knownblockchains, ultimately only a single branch may form the primaryconsensus chain and all other forks must be ignored or truncated withonly the primary consensus blockchain being considered as valid.Consensus on which chain is valid may be achieved by choosing thelongest chain, which thus represents the blockchain having the most workput into completing it. Therefore, it is necessary to utilize the forkblock 143 as described herein to permit permissibly forked chains to becreated and certified as authorized forks via the fork hash 149 so as toprevent participating nodes to ignore or truncate the fork. Because eachnode may independently validate the forked blockchain, it will not beignored, just as a validated primary blockchain will not be ignored uponhaving consensus.

FIG. 2B depicts another example architecture 201 with additional detailfor sidechains, in accordance with described embodiments. In thisexample architecture, the blockchain consensus manager 191 and thepermissions manager 181 operate to support consensus on read and accesscontrol processes as further described in relation to FIGS. 10-12.

More particularly, there is depicted here mechanism by which to performa symmetric two-way pegged transfer from a parent blockchain 188 (e.g.,e.g., a primary chain) to a sidechain 189, which may be a differentblockchain protocol supported by and provided by the host organization110 or the sidechain may be a foreign blockchain, public or private, forwhich the sidechain exchange manager 193 of the host organization 110participates as a node, so as to permit access and transactionalcapabilities with the sidechain.

Regardless, it is in accordance with described embodiments thatinter-chain transfers between the parent blockchain 188 and thesidechain 189 may permissibly performed in compliance with the rules andconditions of each respective blockchain. Notably, as described here,the perspective of each blockchain is interchangeable insomuch that thesidechain 189 depicted here may consider itself as a primary or parentblockchain and consider the depicted parent blockchain 188 as the childblockchain or a sidechain. Regardless, each blockchain operatesindependently, yet has a defined exchange mechanism by which to exchangeassets, coins, tokens, value, or other payload information between themwhich have been created by a transaction utilizing a declared smartaction.

As shown here, the sidechain exchange manager 193 of the hostorganization may send a parent chain asset as an output of the parentblockchain 188 at operation 151.

A Simplified Payment Verification (SPV) proof 181 associated with theparent blockchain 188 asset is generated as the output and communicatedto the sidechain 189. The SPV proof may include a threshold level ofwork, and the generating may take place over a predetermined period oftime, which may also be referred to as a confirmation period 152. Theconfirmation period of a transfer between chains may be a duration forwhich a coin, token, or other exchanged value is locked on the parentblockchain 188 before may successfully be transferred to the sidechain189. This confirmation period may allow for sufficient work to becreated such that a denial of service attack in the next waiting periodbecomes more computationally difficult.

Consider for instance an exemplary confirmation period which may be onthe order of 1-2 days. The confirmation period may be implemented, insuch an example, as a per-sidechain security parameter, which trades offcross-chain transfer speeds in exchange for greater security. Otherconfirmation periods which are much shorter may be utilized wheresufficiently difficult proof of work conditions are effectuated so as toensure adequate security so as to protect the integrity of bothblockchains and negate the potential for fraudulent transactions.

The output created on the parent blockchain 188 may specify via rulesand configuration parameters (e.g., stored within the blockchainprotocol certification portion of each block of the parent blockchain188) a requirement that any spending, transfer, or consumption of anasset received by the output in the future are burdened with additionalconditions, in addition to the rules governing transfer within theparent chain. For example, any release of assets received by the outputmay require additional conditions for verifying a proof from thedestination chain, such as validating that the rules for the destinationchain proof show that the destination chain has released the asset andshow to where the asset has been released. After creating the output onthe parent blockchain 188, the user waits out the confirmation period,meanwhile, intra-chain transfers 153 continue to occur. Subsequent towaiting out the confirmation period 122, a transaction is then createdon the sidechain 189 referencing the output from the parent blockchain188.

The sidechain, using a sidechain validator service, such as the blockvalidator 192 of the host organization, is then provided with an SPVproof that shows the parent chain asset was created and encumbered bysufficient work within the parent chain. A sidechain validator service(e.g., block validator 192 if performed by the host organization'savailable services) will then validate that the SPV proof associatedwith the parent blockchain 188 asset meets the required threshold levelof work indicated by the SPV proof at operation 154 and a sidechain 189asset corresponding to the parent blockchain 188 asset is thengenerated.

The generated sidechain 189 asset also may be held for a predeterminedcontest period at operation 154, during which time the transfer will beinvalidated if a reorganization proof 183 associated with the parentblockchain 188 asset is detected in the parent blockchain.

The contest period at operation 154 may be a duration during which anewly-transferred token, coin, value, or payload data may not be spent,accessed, or consumed on the sidechain 189. The predetermined contestperiod is implemented to prevent any possibility for double-spending inthe parent blockchain 188 by transferring previously-locked coins,tokens, value, or payload data during a reorganization. If at any pointduring this delay, a new SPV proof 184 (known as a “reorganizationproof”) is published containing a chain with more aggregate work whichdoes not include the block in which the SPV lock output 121 was created,the conversion is retroactively invalidated. If no reorganization proofis detected, the sidechain asset may be released. All participatingnodes on the sidechain have an incentive to produce reorganizationproofs if possible, as the consequence of a bad proof being admitteddegrades the value of all sidechain tokens, coins, value, or trust inthe authenticity of payload data stored by the sidechain 189.

Similar to the above, an exemplary contest period 126 at operation 156may also be on the order of 1-2 days. To avoid these delays, users mayinstead employ use atomic swaps for fungible transfers, so long as aliquid market is available. Where the exchanged asset is a unique orless common token, value, or payload data, atomic swaps will not befeasible and a sidechain transfer must instead occur, despite thenecessity of a potentially lengthy 1-2 day waiting period.

Upon eventual release of the sidechain asset, the side chain assetcorresponding to the parent chain asset may then be transferred orconsumed within the sidechain one or more times the intra-chaintransfers 123 of the sidechain 189. While locked on the parentblockchain 188, the asset is freely transferable within the sidechainand without requiring any further interaction with the parent blockchain188, thus permitting the sidechain 189 to again operate whollyindependently. Notwithstanding the above, the sidechain asset retainsits identity as a parent chain token, coin, value, or payload data andmay therefore, if the need arises, be transferred back to theoriginating parent blockchain 188 from which the sidechain assetoriginated. In certain embodiments, transfers are relegated to only asingle hop, such that an asset cannot be transferred to a sidechain 189and then transferred again to another sidechain, where it is necessaryto prevent obfuscation of the source. Such restrictions are dependentupon the particular blockchain protocol chosen and the define exchangeagreement (e.g., pegging conditions) established between a parentblockchain 188 and a sidechain 189.

Where it becomes necessary to redeem a sidechain asset in the parentblockchain 188, the sidechain asset may be sent to an output of thesidechain as depicted at operation 157. An SPV proof 182 associated withthe sidechain asset is thus generated and communicated to the parentblockchain 188. A parent chain validator service, such as the blockvalidator 192 of the host organization 110, may validate the SPV proof182 associated with the sidechain asset at operation 156. The validatedthe SPV proof 182 associated with the sidechain 189 asset may include,for example, validation that the SPV proof 182 associated with thesidechain asset meets the threshold level of work indicated by the SPVproof 182 associated with the sidechain asset.

As before, the parent chain asset associated with the sidechain assetmay be held for a second predetermined contest period at step 129,during which a release of the parent chain asset is denied at operation128 where the contest period ends if a reorganization proof 183associated with the sidechain asset is detected in the sidechain. Theparent chain asset may be released if no reorganization proof 183associated with the sidechain asset is detected.

If validation failure occurs with respect to the new and second SPVproof 184, after the reorganization proof 183 is received, then a newand second SPV proof 184 associated with the sidechain asset may bereceived and validated by the parent blockchain 188 during a thirdpredetermined contest period at operation 159. The parent blockchain 188asset may be released if no reorganization proof associated with thesidechain asset is detected during the third predetermined contestperiod, after which the parent chain asset is free to be transferredwithin the parent chain via the depicted intra-chain transfers 123 shownat the rightmost side of the parent blockchain 188 flow.

Because pegged sidechains may carry assets from many differentblockchains, it may be problematic to make assumptions about thesecurity of the other foreign blockchains. It is therefore required inaccordance with certain embodiments that different assets are notinterchangeable (except by an explicit trade) within the sidechain.Otherwise, a malicious user may potentially execute a fraudulenttransaction by creating a worthless chain with a worthless asset, andthen proceed to move the worthless asset from their worthless chain intothe primary blockchain 188 or into a sidechain 189 with which theprimary blockchain 188 interacts and conducts exchanges. This presumesthat the worthless chain secures a pegged exchange agreement with thesidechain. However, because the rules, configuration options, andsecurity scheme of the sidechain 189 is not controlled by the parentblockchain 188 (assuming the sidechain is a foreign sidechain and notanother blockchain protocol provided by the host organization 110), itsimply cannot be known with certainty that the sidechain 189 beinginteracted with does not contain such vulnerabilities. To negate thispotential security vulnerability, the sidechain 189 may be required, asper the pegged exchange agreement, to treat assets from separate parentblockchains as wholly as separate asset types, as denoted by the blocktype portion of a blockchain protocol block as depicted at FIG. 1B,element 167.

With a symmetric two-way pegged sidechain transfer, both the parentblockchain 188 and sidechains 189 may perform SPV validation services ofdata on each other, especially where the parent blockchain 188 isprovided the host organization and where the sidechain is a foreignsidechain for which the host organization is merely a participating nodevia the sidechain exchange manager node 193. Because the parentblockchain 188 clients (e.g., participating nodes) do not observe everysidechain, users import proofs of work from the sidechain into theparent chain in order to prove possession. In a symmetric two-way peg,the reverse is also true. For example, to use Bitcoin as a parentblockchain 188, an extension script to recognize and validate such SPVproofs may be utilized. To facilitate such transactions, the SPV proofsare sufficiently small in size so as to fit within a Bitcoin transactionpayload. However, such a change may alternatively be implemented as aforking transaction, as described previously, without affectingtransactions not involved in pegged sidechain transactions. Stateddifferently, using symmetric two-way pegged sidechains as describedabove, no further restrictions need to be placed upon any transactiondeemed valid within Bitcoin.

Through the use of such pegged sidechains transactions, independentblockchains are made to be flexible enough to support many assets,including assets that did not exist when the chain was first created.Each of these assets may be labeled with the blockchain from which itwas transferred so as to ensure that transfers may be unwound (e.g.,transferred back) correctly.

According to certain embodiments, the duration of the contest period ismade as a function of the relative hash power of the parent chain andthe sidechain, such that the receiving sidechain (or the parentblockchain with an incoming transfer) may only unlock tokens, coins,value, or data payloads, given an SPV proof of one day's worth of itsown proof-of-work, which may, for example, correspond to several days ofthe sending blockchain's proof-of-work. Security parameters of theparticular sidechain's blockchain protocol implementation may thus betuned to each particular sidechain's implementation.

According to described embodiments, the block validator 192 may require,utilize, or apply various types of consensus management to the blocksrequiring validation.

When a block containing a particular asset or transaction is to be addedto the blockchain, the transaction type database is queried using thetype of the particular asset or transaction that is to be added to theblockchain to determine the corresponding consensus protocol type thatis to be used to commit the particular asset or transaction, or blockcontaining the particular asset or transaction, to the blockchain. Forexample, in the database, a transaction type of “loan” may be associatedwith a consensus protocol type of “proof of stake” (PoS), an asset typeof “document” may be associated with a consensus protocol type of“Byzantine Fault Tolerant” (BFT), an asset or transaction type of“currency” may be associated with a consensus protocol type of “proof ofwork” (PoW), and a default transaction type to be used in the case of anotherwise unenumerated transaction type in the database may beassociated with a default consensus protocol type, say, PoS. Anothertransaction type may correspond to an asset type having metadata storedtherein, possibly typed as “metadata,” while a closely relatedtransaction type stores a “related entity” as metadata within theblockchain having a transaction type of either “metadata” if it sharesthe same type as normal metadata or having a transaction type of“related entity” if separate. Still further, a “stored record”transaction type may be utilized to store a record having multipledistinct data elements embedded therein, typically which will be definedby metadata specified by an application developer.

For instance, when a block or transaction within a block having aparticular transaction type corresponding to transactions utilizing adeclared smart action is to be added to the blockchain, the consensusprotocol type to be used to commit the block or transaction therein tothe blockchain is PoS, when a block or transaction therein with aparticular asset having the type “document” is to be added to theblockchain, the consensus protocol type to be used to commit the blockor transaction therein to the blockchain is BFT, and when a block ortransaction therein with a particular transaction having a transactiontype that is not specified in the database is to be added to theblockchain, then the default consensus protocol type of PoS is to beused to commit the block or transaction therein to the blockchain.

This selected consensus protocol type may be communicated to the nodesin the consortium for use in for validating the request to add the newblock or transaction therein to the blockchain. According to certainembodiments, the host organization 110 receives validation of therequest to add the new block or transaction therein to the blockchainwhen the nodes in the consortium reach consensus according to theselected consensus protocol to add the block or transaction therein tothe blockchain and communicate such to the host.

Any relevant factors may be used in determining which nodes participatein the consensus protocol, including, for example, the selectedconsensus protocol itself, a particular node's computing resources, thestake a particular node has in the consortium or the selected consensusprotocol, relevant (domain) knowledge a particular node has, whetherthat knowledge is inside (on-chain) or outside (off-chain) with regardto the blockchain or consortium, a particular node's previous orhistorical performance, whether in terms of speed or accuracy, or lackthereof, in participating in the selected consensus protocol, the blocknumber of the new block being added to the blockchain, the number oftransactions in the new block, the size of the block, and the fiduciaryor nonfiduciary nature of the assets or transactions in the block beingadded to the blockchain.

According to a particular embodiment, the host organization 110 receivesfrom each of one or more of the nodes in a peer-to-peer network aweighted vote to validate or to add a new block or transaction thereinto the blockchain, in response to the request, or in response to arequest for a vote issued by the blockchain platform host. These nodeslearn of the request either through a blockchain protocol packetbroadcast by the node generating the request, or by communication withother nodes in the consortium or the blockchain platform host providingnotice of the request in conjunction or combination with the request fora vote transmitted by the blockchain platform host. The hostorganization then responsively validates, or receives validation of, therequest to add the new block or transaction therein to the blockchainwhen a sum of the received weighted votes exceeds a threshold.

According to another embodiment, a consortium of nodes participate in aprivate, or permissioned, blockchain within which each node is assigneda weight that its vote will be given, for example, based on domain(general) knowledge about the transactions, or types of transactions,the nodes may add to a new block in the blockchain. Certain nodes may begiven a zero weight within such a permissioned blockchain, whereas othernodes may be given such a significant weight that their vote is nearcontrolling or even controlling when combined with a limited number ofother highly weighted nodes, depending upon the particularimplementation.

Before a node adds a transaction to a new block of the blockchain, orbefore the new block including the transaction may be added to theblockchain, other nodes in the consortium vote on adding the transactionto the new block for the blockchain and/or adding the new block to theblockchain. When a majority of nodes agree the transaction and/or newblock is valid and may thus be accepted as a valid block on the primaryblockchain, the transaction and/or new block is added and accepted tothat primary blockchain, sometimes called the main chain or theconsensus chain. For instance, while an invalid block may be added tothe blockchain, such an invalid block in effect creates a side chainwhich fails to attain consensus, and thus, is never accepted as an addedvalid block within the main or primary blockchain. Nodes are weightedsuch that a “majority” may be obtained or denied based on the votes ofone or more of the nodes participating in the private blockchain, thatis, a majority may be obtained from less than all of the nodesparticipating in the blockchain.

According to this embodiment, the parties in the consortium agree uponthe weight, w, to assign each node in the consortium, for example, basedon a party's domain knowledge, and/or other criteria, including, forexample, a party's participation in another blockchain or sidechain. Thetotal weight, W, of the nodes in the consortium is equal to the sum ofthe individual node weights, w₁+w₂+w_(n), where n is the number of nodesin the consortium. The weight, w, of any one member, or the ratio of w/Wmay or may not exceed a certain threshold, in one embodiment. Eachnode's weight is attributed to the respective node's vote. If the sum ofthe weights for the nodes that voted exceed a certain threshold, thetransaction/new block is validated and added to the blockchain. Inparticular, the transaction/new block is added if the total weight, W,attributed to the votes meets or exceeds a threshold (e.g., a plurality,majority, supermajority, in terms of percentage of w/W, or absolutevalue for w, whatever is agreed upon by the consortium) to reachconsensus for the blockchain. In this embodiment, the nodes in theblockchain do not need to come to unanimous agreement about adding thetransaction and/or new block to the blockchain, and indeed, after thethreshold is met, a node need not begin, or continue, to participate inthe voting process.

In one embodiment, at least a minimum number of nodes, k, vote on addinga transaction to the new block in the blockchain, or adding the newblock that includes the transaction to the blockchain, to mitigate therisk of fraud or double-spending, or to prevent one node with a largeweight, w, or a small group of nodes with a collectively large weight,from controlling the outcome of the vote. In one embodiment, the numberof nodes that participate in voting, k, or the ratio of k/n must meet aminimum threshold.

FIG. 3A depicts an example architecture 300 in accordance with describedembodiments. In this example architecture, the blockchain consensusmanager 191 and the permissions manager 181 operate to support consensuson read and access control processes as further described in relation toFIGS. 10-12.

As depicted here, there is again the host organization 110 whichincludes the hosted computing environment 111 having a processors andmemory (e.g., within the execution hardware, software, and logic 120 ofthe database system 130) which serve to operate the blockchain servicesinterface 190 including the blockchain consensus manager 191 andblockchain metadata definition manager 196. There is additionallydepicted an index 316 which provides addressing capabilities for data,metadata, and records which are written to, or transacted onto theblockchain.

Additionally depicted are the multiple tenant orgs 305A, 305B, and 305C(also referred to sometimes as customer orgs) each of which have tenantclient devices 306A, 306B, and 306C via which the tenants and thetenants' users may interact with the host organization 110 and itsservices. For example, the tenant orgs may submit queries or data 311 tothe host organization to request data retrieval from the blockchain orto store data to the blockchain, either of which may utilize thedepicted index 316.

According to certain embodiments, the index 316 implements a Merkle TreeIndex or a Merkle Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) or a “Merkle-DAG” treeindex. In cryptography and computer science, a hash tree or Merkle treeis a tree in which every leaf node is labeled with the hash of a datablock, and every non-leaf node is labeled with the cryptographic hash ofthe labels of its child nodes. Such trees allow for efficient and secureverification of the contents of large data structures and thus providesignificant efficiencies for data retrieval from large data structures.According to such an embodiment, implementing the index 316 via a Merkletree or the Merkle-DAG tree recursively defines the index as a binarytree of hash lists where the parent node is the hash of its children,and the leaf nodes are hashes of the original data blocks. TheMerkle-DAG tree permits for unbalanced trees and permits data in theleaf (terminal) nodes.

Implementing the index 316 via a Merkle tree provides a means to provethe integrity and validity of data stored within the index, requiresrelatively little memory or disk space as the proofs are computationallyeasy and fast, and additionally, the proofs and management for theMerkle tree index requires only very small or tiny amounts ofinformation to be transmitted across networks, thus being moreoperationally efficient in terms of network resource consumption. Whilemany blockchains heavily rely upon the use of Merkle trees for thepurposes of block verification, the index 316 implemented utilizing aMerkle tree, is unrelated to the block verification functions of theblockchain and is used here as a robust and efficient means by which tostore the index 316 information.

FIG. 3B depicts another example architecture 301 in accordance withdescribed embodiments. In this example architecture, the blockchainconsensus manager 191 and the permissions manager 181 operate to supportconsensus on read and access control processes as further described inrelation to FIGS. 10-12.

There is again the host organization 110 which includes the hostedcomputing environment 111 having a processors and memory (e.g., withinthe execution hardware, software, and logic 120 of the database system130) which serve to operate the blockchain services interface 190including the blockchain consensus manager 191 and blockchain metadatadefinition manager 196. There is additionally depicted an index 316which provides addressing capabilities for data, metadata, and recordswhich are written to, or transacted onto the blockchain 399.

As shown, the index 316 is stored within the database system 130 of thehost organization, however, the Merkle tree index 316 may alternativelybe written to and stored on the blockchain itself, thus enablingparticipating nodes with the blockchain which lack access to the queryinterface 180 of the host organization to nevertheless be able toretrieve the Merkle tree index 316 (when stored on the blockchain) andthen use an address retrieved from the Merkle tree index 316 to directlyreference an addressable block on the blockchain to retrieve the desiredrecord, data, or metadata, without having to traverse the entireblockchain or search the blockchain for the needed record.

As depicted, there is another index 316 depicted as being shown withinthe last standard block 142 of the blockchain 399. Only one index 316 isrequired, but the index 316 may permissibly be stored in eitherlocation.

The Merkle tree index 316 depicted in greater detail at the bottom showsa level 0 Merkle root having a hash of ABCDE, followed by a hash layerwith two hash nodes, a first with hash ABC and a second with a hash DE,followed by the data blocks within the data leafs identified by hash A,B, C, D, and E, each containing the addressing information for theaddressable blocks on the blockchain.

Storing data and metadata on the blockchain 399 via the blockchainmetadata definition manager 196 in conjunction with the use of a Merkletree index 316 is much more efficient than previously known data storageschemes as it is not necessary to search through multiple blocks 141 and142 of the blockchain to retrieve a data record. Rather, the index 316is first searched to retrieve an address for the desired block, which isvery fast and efficient, and then using the retrieved address from theindex 316, the record is retrieved directly from the addressable blockon the blockchain 399.

As data is stored within a blockchain using conventional techniques, theamount of data in the blockchain explodes in terms of total volume ofstored data creating scalability problems and resulting in problematicinefficiencies. The total volume of data stored to a blockchain tends toexplode or grow unsustainably over time because every time a storedrecord is updated or modified, it is necessary to re-write the entiretyof the modified record back to the blockchain which then becomes themost recent and up-to-date record, however, all prior versions andcopies are retained within the blockchain, thus resulting in significantduplicative data entries being stored. The benefit to such an approachis that an entire record may be retrieved from a single block on theblockchain, without having to refer back to prior blocks on theblockchain for the same record. But such a storage scheme is highlyinefficient in terms of storage.

Alternatively, only a modification to a record stored within theblockchain may be stored, in accordance with conventional approaches,thus resulting in the modified data being written into a new block onthe blockchain, with the non-modifiable data being retrievable from aprior block of the blockchain. This approach reduces the total amount ofdata stored by the blockchain. Unfortunately, any data retrieval of amodified record requires the inspecting and retrieval from multipleblocks on the blockchain, thus mitigating the data redundancy andunsustainable growth problem, but trading that problem for anundesirable data retrieval inefficiency problem.

In such a way, data management for records and information stored withinthe blockchain 399 is improved. Moreover, metadata may additionally bestored within the blockchain to provide additional information andcontext regarding stored records, with each of the data records and themetadata describing such data records being more easily retrievablethrough the use of the index 316. Such metadata permits a business orother entity to transform the data record retrieved from the blockchainback into a useable format much easier than with conventional approacheswhich lose such context and metadata for any record written to theblockchain.

FIG. 3C depicts another exemplary architecture 302 in accordance withdescribed embodiments. In this example architecture, the blockchainconsensus manager 191 and the permissions manager 181 operate to supportconsensus on read and access control processes as further described inrelation to FIGS. 10-12.

There is again the host organization 110 which includes the hostedcomputing environment 111 having a processors and memory (e.g., withinthe execution hardware, software, and logic 120 of the database system130) which serve to operate the blockchain services interface 190including the blockchain consensus manager 191 and the blockchainmetadata definition manager 196 which utilizes an index 316 by which toidentify an addressable block of the blockchain 399 via which a desiredrecord is stored. There is additionally depicted an exemplary storedrecord 390 at the second to last block of the blockchain 399.

Here the stored record 390 stores student information including astudent first name 315A, a student last name 315B, a student phonenumber 315C, and a student ID 315D.

Once the stored record 390 is transacted onto the blockchain, forinstance, by adding an asset to the blockchain within which the storedrecord 390 is embodied, student data is persistently stored by theblockchain and accessible to participating nodes with access to theblockchain 399, however, when such data is retrieved, the stored recorddoes not in of itself describe how to use such data, any particularformat for such data, or how to validate such data. Therefore, it isfurther permissible to store metadata within the blockchain which maythen be used to define the format, validation means, and use for suchdata, but storage of the metadata only exacerbates the problem ofsearching for and retrieving data from the blockchain as there is now astored record 390 and also stored metadata 391 which is associated withthat record. An organization methodology is thus provided by theindexing scheme as implemented by the blockchain metadata definitionmanager 196 in conjunction with use of the index 316 which provides formore efficient storage, retrieval, and validation of data stored on theblockchain.

According to one embodiment, the stored record 390 is thereforeconverted to a more efficient format for storage within the blockchain.Consider the stored record 390 for which student information is stored.Initially, the stored record 390 may include only student first name315A and student last name 315B, and is then stored. Subsequently, thestudent record is updated to include student phone number 315C, andthus, either the stored record 390 is updated and re-written to theblockchain in its entirety thus creating a second copy, albeit updated,of the stored record 390 or alternatively, only the new portion, thestudent phone number 315C is written to the blockchain with a referenceback to the prior record, in which case total storage volume is reduced,but retrieval of the entire record requires searching for and findingmultiple blocks on the blockchain from which to reconstruct the entirestored record 390. Worse yet, if the student ID 315D is subsequentlyassigned, then the stored record 390 needs to be updated again, thuswriting yet another entire stored record 390 to the blockchain resultingin now three different versions and copies on the blockchain, or asbefore, writing only the new portion of the stored record to theblockchain 399, in which case the stored record 390 is fragmented acrossat least three blocks of the blockchain.

This fragmentation is problematic because if you are looking for studentinformation, it may result that a first block contains the student'sfirst name and last name, a second block contains a change to thestudent's last name due to an update, a third block contains only thestudent's phone number, and so forth. Consequently, it is necessary totravel the blocks of the blockchain to pick up all the fragmented piecesso as to reconstruct the entire stored record 390 before it may be usedfor whatever application requires the data.

FIG. 3D depicts another example architecture 303 in accordance withdescribed embodiments. In this example architecture, the blockchainconsensus manager 191 and the permissions manager 181 operate to supportconsensus on read and access control processes as further described inrelation to FIGS. 10-12.

According to one embodiment, the blockchain metadata definition manager196 writes data or metadata onto a blockchain by transacting an asset tothe blockchain or adding an asset to the blockchain via a newtransaction with the blockchain. According to a particular embodiment,the transaction has a specific transaction type, for instance, definedas a blockchain storage transaction type, which triggers execution of asmart contract to perform validation of the transaction and specificallyto perform validation of the data or metadata within the asset beingadded to or transacted onto the blockchain.

For example, such a smart contract 363 may execute via the hostorganization's blockchain services interface 190 which performs thevalidation and then transacts the new asset onto the blockchain pursuantto successful validation of the data or metadata within the asset beingstored on the blockchain. As shown here at element 363, a smart contractexecutes and validates the transaction for the blockchain. Subsequently,a validated transaction 364 is then added to or transacted onto theblockchain 399.

FIG. 4A depicts another exemplary architecture 400, with additionaldetail of a blockchain implemented smart contract created utilizing asmartflow contract engine 405, in accordance with described embodiments.In this example architecture, the blockchain consensus manager 191 andthe permissions manager (not shown) operate to support consensus on readand access control processes as further described in relation to FIGS.10-12.

In particular, there is depicted here within the host organization theblockchain services interface 190 which now includes the smartflowcontract engine 405 and additionally includes the GUI manager 410.

Because blockchain utilizes a distributed ledger, creation and executionof smart contracts may be technically complex, especially for noviceusers. Consequently, a smart flow visual designer allow implementationof smart contracts with greater ease. The resulting smart flow contracthas mathematically verifiable auto-generated code, as created by theblockchain translator 430 freeing customers and users from having toworry about the programming language used in any given blockchainprotocol. Moreover, the smart flow contract engine implements visualdesigners that coordinate with the blockchain translator 430 to generatethe requisite native code capable of executing on each of theparticipating nodes of the blockchain, thus further allowing easyprocessing and verification of the smart contract. According to certainembodiments, each smart flow contract utilizes a mathematical code basedverifiable encryption scheme.

Flow designers provide users with a simple, intuitive, web-basedinterface for designing applications and customized process flowsthrough a GUI based guided flow design experience. The flow designerenables even novice users to create otherwise complex functionality,without necessarily having coding expertise or familiarity with theblockchain.

The GUI manager 410 presents a flow designer GUI 411 interface to a userdevice via which users may interact with the host organization. Thesmartflow contract engine 405 in coordination with the GUI managerinterprets the various rules, conditions, and operations provided by theuser, to generate a smartflow contract which is then translated orwritten into the target blockchain protocol.

Through the flow designer GUI 411, a user may completely defineutilizing visual flow elements how a particular process, event,agreement, contract, purchase, or some other transaction needs to occur,including dependencies, checks, required process inputs and outputs,triggers, etc.

Using the flow designer GUI 411, the user simply drags and dropsoperational blocks and defines various conditions and “if then else”events, such as if this event occurs, then take this action. As depictedhere, there are a variety of user defined smart contract blocksincluding user defined conditions 421, events to monitor 421, “if” then“else” triggers 423, and asset identifiers 424.

Once the user has completed defining the flow including all of itsoperational blocks, conditions, triggers and events, the smartflowcontract engine takes each of the individual blocks and translates theminto a native target blockchain protocol via the blockchain translator430, and then generates a transaction to write the translated smartflowcontract 445 into the blockchain 440 via the blockchain servicesinterface 190.

Once transacted to the blockchain, every participating node with theblockchain will have a copy of the smart contract, and therefore, if anygiven event occurs, the corresponding trigger or rule or condition willbe viewable to all participating nodes, some of which may then take anaction based on the event as defined by the smart contract.

The blockchain services interface 190 of the host organization providescustomers, users, and subscribers access to different blockchains, someof which are managed by the host organization 110, such as privateblockchains, others being public blockchains which are accessiblethrough the host organization 110 which participates as a node on suchpublic blockchains. Regardless, each blockchain utilizes a differentblockchain protocol and has varying rules, configurations, and possiblydifferent languages via which interfaces must use to communicate withthe respective blockchains. Consequently, the blockchain translator 430depicted here translates the user defined smart contract blocks into thenative or required language and structure of the targeted blockchain 440onto which the resulting smart contract is to be written or transacted.

Once the smart contract is transacted and broadcast to the blockchain445 it is executed within the blockchain and its provisions, as setforth by the user defined smart contract blocks, are then carried outand enforced.

According to one embodiment, a salesforce.com visual flow designer isutilized to generate the user defined smart contract blocks which arethen translated into a blockchain smart contract. According to otherembodiments, different visual flow designers are utilized and theblockchain translator 430 translates the user defined smart contractblocks into a blockchain smart contract.

The resulting native blockchain protocol smart contract elements 435 maybe embodied within a code, structure, or language as dictated by theblockchain 440 onto which the smart contract is to be written. Forinstance, if the smart contract is to be written to Ethereum then theblockchain translator 430 must translate the user defined smart contractblocks into the Ethereum compliant “Solidity” programming language.Solidity is a contract-oriented, high-level language for implementingsmart contracts specifically on Ethereum. Influenced by C++, Python andJavaScript, the language is designed to target the Ethereum VirtualMachine (EVM). Smart contract elements include support for voting, crowdfunding, blind auctions, multi-signature wallets, as well as many otherfunctions.

Conversely, if the smart contract is to be written to Hyperledger, thenthe language is different, utilizing the Go programming language whichpermits use of a distributed ledger blockchain for and smart contracts,among other capabilities.

While smart contracts are beneficial and supported by many blockchainprotocols they may be cumbersome to implement to the requirement thatthey be programmed in differing languages depending on the particularblockchain being targeted. Therefore, not only must users understandprogramming constructs, but also the particular syntactical nuances ofthe required programming language for the blockchain protocol inquestion.

By utilizing the smart flow contract engine 405, even novice users maycreate compliant smart contracts by generating the smart contractelements with the flow designer and then leveraging the blockchaintranslator 430 to actually render the native blockchain programminglanguage code embodying the smart contract elements as defined by theuser, subsequent to which the blockchain services interface 190 handlesthe transacting of the smart contract onto the blockchain.

Consider for example a vendor that sells to Home Depot and wants toexecute a smart contract with Home Depot which uses Ethereum. The vendorlogs in with the host organization, assuming he is an authenticated userand has access to the cloud subscription services, and then accesses thesmartflow contract engine 405 through which the user may generatewhatever flow he wishes. When done, the user, via the flow designer GUI411, instructs the blockchain services interface 190 to execute thesmart contract, thus causing the smartflow contract engine to translatethe user's custom designed smartflow contract into Ethereum compliant“Solidity” code, subsequent to which the smart contract is then writteninto the blockchain for execution. The vendor need not know how toprogram or even understand the details of transacting with theblockchain. Rather, the cloud based services accessible through the hostorganization 110 remove the complexity from the process and present theuser with a simple flow designer GUI 411 through which all the necessaryoperations may thus be carried out.

According to such embodiments, writing the smart contract to theblockchain requires storing metadata defining the smart contract in theblockchain as supported by the particular blockchain protocol. Accordingto one embodiment, when a transaction occurs on the blockchain, havingthe metadata for the smart contract therein, the smart contract isexecuted and the various user defined smart contract events, conditions,and operations are then effectuated.

According to certain embodiments, the user defined smart contract,having been translated and transacted onto the blockchain, triggersevents on the within the host organization.

For example, consider that Wal-Mart and Nestle have an agreement that ashipment must be transported within a climate controlled trailer withina range of 35 to 39 degrees Fahrenheit at all time. Moreover, if thetemperature exceeds 39 degrees at any time, then the payment isnullified.

Within the host organization, a Customer Relationship Management (CRM)platform defines and manages the various relationships and interactionsbetween customers, vendors, potential customers. suppliers, etc. Theterm CRM is usually in reference to a CRM system, which is a tool thathelps businesses with contact management, sales management, workflowprocesses, productivity and so forth.

In the above example with Wal-Mart and Nestle, the CRM system willpossess the requirements for the shipment. Because the host organizationthrough the CRM system monitors the shipment and subscribes to shipmentevents, such as temperature data, the CRM system will monitor for andbecome aware of a temperature related event for the particular shipmentwhich may then be linked back to the smart contract automatically. Moreparticularly, because the host organization operates as a participatingnode for the blockchain within which the smart contract is executing,the host organization has visibility to both the smart contract termsand conditions accessible via the blockchain and also the CRMrequirements for the shipment, such as the required temperature range.

Therefore, upon the occurrence of a smart contract condition violation,the host organization will synchronize the violation with the CRM system(which is not part of the blockchain) to halt the payment associatedwith that particular shipment, pursuant to the terms of the executingsmart contract.

According to one embodiment, the blockchain sends out an event which theCRM system of the host organization will listen to, and then conductsome substantive action based on the event according to what isspecified by the user defined smart contract flow. With the aboveexample, the substantive action being to halt payment for the shipmentpursuant to the smart contract on the blockchain.

Each of the participating parties for an executing smart contract willlikely have their respective CRM systems subscribed to events of theblockchain associated with the executing smart contract, and therefore,both parties are likely to be aware of the event.

According to one embodiment, logic is written into the CRM system tofacilitate a specific action responsive to a blockchain event. Stateddifferently, non-blockchain actions may be carried out pursuant to anexecuting blockchain smart contract.

FIG. 4B depicts another example architecture 401, with additional detailof a blockchain implemented smart contract created utilizing an Apextranslation engine 455, in accordance with described embodiments. Inthis example architecture, the blockchain consensus manager 191 and thepermissions manager (not shown) operate to support consensus on read andaccess control processes as further described in relation to FIGS.10-12.

As depicted here, there is an Apex translation engine 455 within theblockchain services interface 190.

Apex is a programming language provided by the Force.com platform fordevelopers. Apex is similar to Java and C# as it is a strongly typed,object-oriented based language, utilizing a dot-notation andcurly-brackets syntax. Apex may be used to execute programmed functionsduring most processes on the Force.com platform including custom buttonsand links, event handlers on record insertion, update, or deletion, viascheduling, or via the custom controllers of Visualforce pages.

Developers of the salesforce.com host organization utilize Apexfrequently to implement SQL programming, database interactions, customevents for GUI interfaces, report generation, and a multitude of otherfunctions. Consequently, there is a large community of developersassociated with the host organization 110 which are very familiar withApex and prefer to program in the Apex language rather than having toutilize a less familiar programming language.

Problematically, smart contracts must be written in the native languageof the blockchain protocol being targeted for execution of the smartcontract on the respective blockchain.

For instance, as noted above, if the smart contract is to be written toEthereum then the smart contract must be written with the Ethereumcompliant “Solidity” programming language.

Like the smart contracts, Apex is a kind of metadata. Therefore, theApex translation engine 455 permits developers familiar with Apex toprogram their smart contracts for blockchains utilizing the Apexprogramming language rather than utilizing the native smart contractprotocol programming language.

As depicted here, developers write their smart contracts utilizing theApex programming language and then provide the Apex input 456 to theApex translation engine 455 via the depicted Apex code interface, forexample, by uploading a text file having the developer's Apex codeembedded therein.

The Apex translation engine 455 parses the Apex input 456 to identifythe Apex defined smart contract blocks and breaks them out inpreparation for translation. As despite here, there are Apex definedconditions 471, Apex events to monitor 472, “if” then “else” Apextriggers 473, and as before, asset identifiers 424 which are not Apexspecific.

The Apex defined smart contract blocks are then provided to the Apexblock translator 480 which converts them into the native blockchainprotocol smart contract elements 435 for the targeted blockchainprotocol. Once translated, the process is as described above, in whichthe translated smart contract is transacted and broadcast 445 to theblockchain 440 for execution 445.

Unlike the visual flow GUI, because Apex is programmatic, users writingApex code may write programs to execute on a smart contract and are notlimited by the available functions within the visual flow GUI.

According to a particular embodiment, the Apex input 456 is firsttranslated into JavaScript and then subsequently translated into aspecific blockchain API appropriate for the targeted blockchain protocolupon which the smart contract is to be executed.

According to another embodiment, listening events may be written usingthe Apex language and provided in the Apex input 456, however, suchlistening events are to be executed by the host organization. Therefore,the Apex block translator 480 separates out any identified Apexlisteners 478 and returns those to the host organization 110 where theymay be implemented within the appropriate CRM system or other eventmonitoring system. In such a way, developers may write the Apex input456 as a single program and not have to separately create the smartcontract and also the related listening events in separate systems.

FIG. 4C depicts another example architecture 402, with additional detailof an SQL Filtering and Query translator utilizing an Apex translationengine 455 for records stored persistently to a blockchain, inaccordance with described embodiments. In this example architecture, theblockchain consensus manager 191 and the permissions manager 181 operateto support consensus on read and access control processes as furtherdescribed in relation to FIGS. 10-12.

As may be viewed here, there is now the Apex translation engine 455which is to receive an SQL filter or an SQL query which is submittedagainst the host organization's 110 query interface 180, however, forrecords that are persisted by the blockchain 440, it is necessary forthe query interface 180 to delegate some of the work to the blockchainservices interface 190.

Problematically, the blockchain has no capability whatsoever to receive,process, or transact SQL based queries or filters as the blockchain isnot a relational database system. And yet, the host organization 110provides on-demand and cloud based services to its users at leastpartially on the premise that users are provided with greater technicalcapabilities (e.g., permitting use of the blockchain 440) yet withsimplified tools, so as to not burden the host organization's users withtechnical complexity.

Therefore, the host organization implements the Apex translation engine455 as depicted here which operates in conjunction with the apex codeinterface 454 to receive the SQL filter/query 457 from the queryinterface 180 of the host organization 110.

The SQL filter/query 457 is communicated into the Apex translationengine 455 which as part of its Apex defined SQL query and filter termtranslation blocks is now depicted as including an SQL term mapper 458which is capable of reading, parsing, and dissecting the incoming SQLfilter/query 457 into its constituent parts, such that the appropriateasset identifiers 424 which actually store the various payload datawithin assets of the blockchain may be referenced, such that theunderlying data records may be retrieved from the blockchain 440.

The parsed terms and the appropriate asset identifiers 424 are thentransmitted through the Apex block translator 480 and then convertedinto native blockchain protocol for payload data retrieval at element459.

The native blockchain protocol for payload data retrieval at element 459may then be executed against the blockchain 440 by transacting theblockchain read request 461 onto the blockchain 440 resulting in theretrieved payload data from the blockchain at element 462 being returnedfrom the blockchain 440.

This record set as represented by the retrieved payload data from theblockchain 462 is not in the appropriate format for an SQL filter/query457, however, it does include the necessary data to ultimately fulfillthe received SQL filter/query 457. Stated differently, the retrievedpayload data from the assets of the blockchain includes datarepresenting the records being queried, albeit in a wholly incompatibleformat, corresponding to the format of the blockchain, often with thedata being hashed or serialized and thus, needing conversion back into areadable format based on metadata 489 retrieved from the blockchaindescribing the structure of the stored data.

The retrieved payload data from the blockchain 462 is next returned backto the apex translation engine 455 which converts the data from theblockchain into a readable format. Next the translated records arecommunicated to the database system 130 within a temporary view 463 ofthe returned record set at which point the SQL query/filter (e.g.,element 457) is then applied to the temporary view 463 at the databasesystem 130 utilizing the original SQL filter/query terms or utilizingtranslated and optimized SQL filter/query terms, so as to return theoriginally requested record set responsive to the incoming SQLfilter/query.

In such a way, it is thus possible for a user to issue SQL query/filtersagainst data which is stored on the blockchain 440 without the userneeding any understanding of how to interact with the blockchain or howto transact with the blockchain, and indeed, without requiring the usereven having knowledge that such data is stored on the blockchain 440.

According to one embodiment, the data stored on the blockchain isqueried or filtered using the SQL filter/query 457 request and moreparticularly, the filtering requested is to be done based onrelationships between the data elements stored within the blockchain.

Notably, however, there is no construct for “relationships” between dataelements for payload data stored within assets on the blockchain as theblockchain is not a relational database system.

Nevertheless, such SQL filter/query 457 requests are made possiblethrough the host organization 110 based on the defined metadata 489declared, defined, and stored to the blockchain by transacting themetadata to the blockchain to describe the structure and relationshipsof data being written onto the blockchain by, for example, a declaredapplication. Such metadata may be defined through the creation anddeclaration of the application in accordance with related embodiments asis described in greater detail below.

In such a way, it is possible to define entities that are related to oneanother, similar to the manner in which entities are related to oneanother in a relational database system, with the distinction that suchrecords are written to a DLT platform such as the blockchain 440.Notably, the records within the blockchain are not inherently related toone another as with a relational database, but rather, it is necessaryto retrieve both the data and also the metadata which defines suchrecords.

It is therefore in accordance with such embodiments that the Apextranslation engine 455 translates the relationships between the definedentities on behalf of the blockchain which then in turn permits the hostorganization's database system 130 and/or query interface 180 to performthe necessary JOIN operations on the data to form a unified table or aJOIN table view, against which the SQL filter/query 457 request may thenbe applied.

According to a particular embodiment, any transaction written onto theblockchain results in a leaf node persisting data as an off-chain storeddatabase representation which may later be correlated to an RDBMS formatby the Apex translation engine 455.

According to such an embodiment, relational tables are later created bythe Apex translation engine based on the retrieved payload data from theblockchain and based on the metadata 489 transacted onto the blockchainand retrieved concurrent with the retrieved payload data.

According to the described embodiments, anytime there is a change to themetadata which defines the structure of such data, the metadata changesare updated by transacting the new metadata definition onto theblockchain, and consequently, any such changes to the metadata areautomatically translated into any RDBMS formatted tables which are builton retrieved data, since the Apex translation engine with retrieve andreference the updated metadata definitions.

According to such embodiments, once the RDBMS formatted tables are builtby the Apex translation engine, the SQL filter/query 457 request is thenqueried against the built RDBMS tables at the host organization's 110database systems 130. According to another embodiment, the RDBMS tablesare built first by retrieving the metadata 489 from the blockchain, butwithout retrieving the payload data. Subsequently, the SQL filter/query457 request is applied to the RDBMS formatted tables and based on thequery, the Apex translation engine identifies the appropriate assetidentifiers 424 within which the payload data is stored on theblockchain 440, identifying the corresponding block number for the dataon the blockchain before then retrieving the payload data from theblockchain and populating the retrieved data into the previouslyformatted RDBMS tables, which are structured but empty. The retrievedpayload data is then populated into the empty RDBMS tables so as tofacilitate the SQL filter/query 457 request being applied against thenow populated RDBMS tables in fulfillment of the request.

In such a way, it is then possible to query against the data in theblockchain utilizing SQL queries and it is possible to filter using SQLbased on the relationships, notwithstanding the fact that theauthoritative source of the data is ultimately the payload data writtento assets transacted onto the blockchain 440 and not a relationaldatabase system.

By creating a separate table view with the block ID and block numberthat is persisted to the blockchain for any changes, it is possible toperform much faster lookups utilizing the separate view while stillvalidating that the reference data is current by utilizing the block IDto check the data at the blockchain without having to perform atime-intensive search of the blockchain for the data in question, as theblock ID permits reference directly to a single block.

To be clear, according to such an embodiment, there are two queries. Afirst SQL based query against the temporary view in the database systemthrough the RDBMS formatted tables and then a fast lookup for the blockID and block number is performed and the Apex translation engine thengoes back to the blockchain to validate that the queried data is currentand accurate, based on the table look up of the block ID and blocknumber which is maintained as the asset identifiers 424 by the Apextranslation engine.

Additionally, because the data is represented in an RDBMS format, it isfurther permissible to perform JOINs on data stored within theblockchain. Such JOINs are important as they permit analytics to beperformed utilizing data stored in the blockchain which would nototherwise be possible.

According to such embodiments, the RDBMS formatted table representationin the database system 130 is not an immutable table, however, it isrestricted in such a way that no entity has authority to make changes tothe RDBMS formatted table, with the exception of the Apex translationengine's transaction playback mechanism discussed below.

Therefore, it is only the blockchain monitoring/event listener componentwhich is enabled to update this table and which performs the necessarysynchronizations from the blockchain authoritative source back to theRDBMS formatted table and temporary view in the database system 130 ofthe host organization anytime that changes to either the metadata orchanges to the persisted data stored to the blockchain are observed bythe event listener.

According to further embodiments, there is additionally a transactionplayback mechanism for processing SQL filter/query 457 requests when theblockchain is inaccessible and a recovery mechanism for blockchain datarestoration in the event the blockchain becomes permanently inaccessibleor in the highly unlikely event that the data on the blockchain becomescorrupted.

According to such embodiments, the playback mechanism permits SQLfilter/query 457 requests to be processed by the host organization 110without validating the data stored within the blockchain to verify thetemporary host organization's view of the data is current.

It is possible that a SQL filter/query 457 request is received while theblockchain 440 is inaccessible. Accordingly, the Apex translation enginein conjunction with the database system 130 of the host organizationrecord all transactions that add, update, or delete data for thetemporary view. While such changes are transacted onto the blockchain,those changes are recorded as a series of updates and maintained at thehost organization. These changes represent a non-authoritative source,but may nevertheless be referenced.

Therefore, in the event that the blockchain 440 is inaccessible, therecorded changes to the data may be replayed by the database system 130to update the temporary view of the data at the host organizationutilizing the replayed add, delete, and update transactions, thusbringing the temporary view into synchronization with the authoritativesource of the same data stored on the blockchain. Once the replay iscompleted, the SQL filter/query 457 request may then be processedagainst the temporary view of the data, without requiring theintermediate operation of the Apex translation engine locating the assetidentifiers 424 for the data stored on the blockchain to validate andverify the data is current.

Thus, the blockchain may be queried and the SQL filter/query 457 requestfulfilled utilizing SQL based language queries and filters even when theblockchain cannot be accessed on a temporary basis.

Such a transaction playback mechanism permits the RDBMS formatted tablesand temporary view to self-heal and come back up to a fully restoredstate at the blockchain level, without needing to reference theblockchain. For example, the host organization's systems will recognizethat the blockchain node went down or is inaccessible, and so it thenreplays all transactions observed and re-applies the metadata todetermine the proper state, similar to the manner that all participatingnodes on the blockchain would self-update, with the exception thatreference is not being made to the blockchain's nodes and likely is muchslower than retrieving the state data and current information from theblockchain directly. Notwithstanding the speed penalty, the benefit isthat valid data may nevertheless be retrieved despite the blockchainnode being down.

According to another embodiment, there is a recovery and restorationmechanism for data stored on the blockchain in the event that theblockchain 440 becomes permanently inaccessible. While this scenario ishighly unlikely, it does present the opportunity to perform a datarestoration if necessary. Also permissible is the ability to perform adata migration from the blockchain 440 where the data is persisted asthe authoritative source to a new blockchain, in the event that the hostorganization or users wish to relocate their data.

Such an embodiment operates similar to the playback of all recordedtransactions which is described above, with the added addition that oncethe playback is complete, all metadata 489 and the records from thetemporary view at the database system 130 of the host organization isthen written onto a restored blockchain 440 or written to a newblockchain repository, thus creating new assets on the blockchain withinwhich the records are persisted as payload data and updating the blockIDs and asset identifiers 424 for such data, so as to fully recover orrestore all data on the blockchain 440 after a catastrophic failure orpursuant to an intentional data migration.

According to a particular embodiment, changes to the metadata arerecognized by the host organization's event listener which looks forchanges at the blockchain that affect any of the assets within whichsuch metadata is stored. Thus, once metadata is committed to theblockchain pursuant to consensus for a transacted asset, the blockchainservices interface will retrieve the updated version of the metadata sothat the RDBMS formatted tables for the temporary view within the hostorganization 110 may be re-built based on the new version of themetadata. For example, the metadata is translated to an SQL datadefinition language and then based on the metadata, the RDBMS datatables which are empty or the RDBMS data representation for populatedtables are rebuilt or restructured according to the new metadatautilizing the translated SQL data definition language.

According to described embodiments, anytime that a blockchain eventoccurs, cryptographic data is returned and the data is then persisted inthe metadata format. The cryptographic data is translated into a formatwhich is understood by other systems, such as using SQL data definitionsor a REST standard or some other standardized decrypted format for othersystems to reference and consume. This data is then pushed out to othersystems which rely upon the data stored in the blockchain which is nowinaccessible such that those systems may also synch up any otherdatabase with a temporary view of the data or synch up any entitylisting for events from the blockchain affecting such data. Forinstance, an analytics engine may constantly listen to a data feed fromthe event listener for changes to the blockchain so that it may feed theanalytics engine. Similarly, an AI engine may listen to the feed so thatit may input training data to the AI, etc.

FIG. 5A depicts another exemplary architecture 501 in accordance withdescribed embodiments. In this example architecture, the blockchainconsensus manager 191 and the permissions manager 181 operate to supportconsensus on read and access control processes as further described inrelation to FIGS. 10-12.

Conventional solutions permit the storage of free-form text within anasset transacted onto the blockchain, for instance, storing such datawithin a payload portion of the asset, however, because such data is notvalidated, there is a risk that corrupted or incorrect data is writtento the blockchain and later retrieved on the assumption that such datais valid.

By executing a smart contract to perform transaction validation of theentity or asset being transacted onto the blockchain, it is thereforepossible to enforce various masks, data structures, data types, dataformat, or other requirements prior to such data being written to theblockchain 399.

According to such embodiments, the blockchain metadata definitionmanager 196 executes smart contract validation 563, and if the data tobe written to the blockchain is not compliant with the requirements setforth by the executed smart contract, then the transaction is rejected565, for instance, sending the transaction back to a query interface toinform the originator of the transaction. Otherwise, assuming thetransaction is compliant pursuant to smart contract execution, then thetransaction is validated 564 and written to the blockchain.

According to one embodiment, the smart contract applies a data mask tovalidate compliance of the data or metadata to be written to theblockchain. In other embodiments, the smart contract enforces ruleswhich are applied to the data as part of the validation procedure.

According to one embodiment, the smart contract executes as part of apre-defined smart contract system which executes with any blockchainwhich permits the use of smart contracts, and the smart contractperforms the necessary data validation.

According to one embodiment, the data or metadata to be written to theblockchain 399 is converted to a JSON format to improve storageefficiency. JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) provides an open-standardfile format that uses human-readable text to transmit data objectsconsisting of attribute—value pairs and array data types or any otherserializable value. It is a very common data format used forasynchronous browser—server communication, including as a replacementfor XML in some AJAX-style systems. Additionally, because JSON is alanguage-independent data format, it may be validated by the smartcontract on a variety of different smart contract execution platformsand blockchain platforms, regardless of the underlying programminglanguage utilized for such platforms.

Thus, as depicted here, data or metadata to be written to the blockchainmay be converted into a JSON format 566 (e.g., within database system130 of the host organization 110) and the validated and converted JSONdata is then transacted onto the blockchain.

FIG. 5B depicts another example architecture 502 for performing dynamicmetadata validation of stored data in accordance with describedembodiments. In this example architecture, the blockchain consensusmanager 191 and the permissions manager 181 operate to support consensuson read and access control processes as further described in relation toFIGS. 10-12.

According to certain embodiments, it is desirable to improve theefficiency of data stored on the blockchain 399, and therefore, all newtransactions having data to be written to the blockchain perform a datamerge 569 process prior to writing the new data to the blockchain. Thisis performed by first retrieving old data, such as a previously writtenstored record from the blockchain, for instance, pulling retrieved data566 into the database system 130 of the host organization, and thenmerging the retrieved data 566 with the new validated data 567 havingbeen checked by the executed smart contract, resulting in merged data568. The merged data 568 is then written to the blockchain, forinstance, by embedding the merged data 568 within a new asset which isadded to the blockchain or by updating an existing asset and replacing apayload portion of the existing asset with the merged data 568, thushaving an entire updated and validated record stored on one block of theblockchain for more efficient retrieval.

According to one embodiment, the data merge 569 process is performed bya protobuf generator 599 which reduces the total size of the data inaddition to merging the retrieved data 566 with the new validated data567. For example, via performance of a dynamic protobuf generation forthe retrieved data 566 with the new validated data 567, the data is madeto be extremely small and efficient.

Protocol Buffers (referred to as a protobuf or protobuff) provide ameans for serializing structured data, thus converting the retrieveddata 566 and the new validated data 567 into a merged serialized bytestream at the protobuf generator 599. This has the added benefit ofpermitting encryption of the merged data and providing such data in abyte stream format which is easily usable by any other application laterretrieving the stored data. The protobuf generator 599 utilizes aninterface description language that describes the structure of the datato be stored with a program that generates source code from thatdescription for generating or parsing a stream of bytes that representsthe structured data represented by the retrieved data 566 and the newvalidated data 567.

Such an approach enables the storing and interchanging all kinds ofstructured information. For instance, a software developer may definethe data structures (such as the retrieved data 566 and the newvalidated data 567) and the protobuf generator 599 then serializes thedata into a binary format which is compact, forward- andbackward-compatible, but not self-describing (that is to say, there isno way to tell the names, meaning, or full datatypes of fields withoutan external specification), thus providing a layer of encryption anddata security for the stored data.

In such a way, the protobuf generator 599 improves efficiency of networkcommunication and improves interoperability with other languages orsystems which may later refer to such data.

Thus, consider the previously described example of the student's storedrecord with the student's first name, last name, phone number, andstudent ID.

According to a particular embodiment, processing begins with generatinga protobuf of the metadata describing the student record as provided byand defined by the application seeking to store data on the blockchain,thus resulting in protobuffed student record metadata or serialized(e.g., JSON) compliant student record metadata. Next, processingvalidates the student data within the stored record against the metadatato ensure compliance (e.g., by executing the smart contract) and thenprocessing generates a protobuf of the student data within the storedrecord resulting in protobuffed student record data. Next, both theprotobuffed or serialized metadata describing the student record and theprotobuffed or serialized data of the student record is then written tothe blockchain. Thus, storing the protobuffed or serialized version ofthe data results in more efficient storage of such data on theblockchain. According to such embodiments, metadata defined by anapplication which is used for validation purposes is also stored in itsprotobuffed or serialized version, thus resulting in efficient storageof protobuffed or serialized metadata on the blockchain.

According to such embodiments, the data merge 569 process includesadding new fields and new data to the stored record which is thenre-written to the blockchain 399 with subsequent to dynamicallyvalidating the new fields using the metadata.

For instance, according to such embodiments, processing includes takingthe retrieved data 566, adding in the new fields, such as adding in astudent's newly assigned universal ID (e.g., such as a universallyunique identifier (UUID) or a globally unique identifier (GUID) as a128-bit number used to identify information within the hostorganization) to the previously stored student's first name, last name,and phone number, so as to generate the merged data 568, subsequent towhich processing dynamically validates merged data 568 based on themetadata by executing the smart contract. If the metadata has previouslybeen written to the blockchain then there is no need to update or storethe metadata again, which is likely the case for merged data 568 whichwill constitute an updated record. Thus, only the merged data 568 iswritten to the blockchain. If the data is new (e.g., not retrieved andnot merged) then processing dynamically validates the new data usingmetadata provided by the application and then stores both the new dataand the metadata onto the blockchain.

Metadata, as defined by the application seeking to store the data ontothe blockchain, may specify, for example, a student record has threemandatory fields and one optional fields, such as mandatory first name,last name, and student ID, and optionally a student phone number, thuspermitting validation of data to be written to the blockchain. Themetadata may further define a format, data mask, or restrictions for thedata fields, such as names must not have numbers, and the phone numbermust have a certain number of digits, etc.

Multiple different applications may store data onto the blockchain, witheach of the multiple different applications defining different metadatafor their respective stored records, and thus permitting the smartcontract execution to perform validation of different kinds of databased on the variously defined metadata for the respective applications.For example, a student record with a student name, phone number, UUIDwill have different metadata requiring different data validation of acredit card record with a credit card number, expiration data, securitycode, etc. Regardless, the same processing is applied as the dynamicallyapplied metadata validation process is agnostic of the underlying data,so long as such data is in compliance with the defined metadata for thedata of the data record to be stored.

FIG. 5C depicts another example architecture 503 for storing relatedentities in accordance with described embodiments. In this examplearchitecture, the blockchain consensus manager 191 and the permissionsmanager 181 operate to support consensus on read and access controlprocesses as further described in relation to FIGS. 10-12.

In the example of the saved student record as described above, there wasa student record saved to the blockchain having, for example, a studentfirst name, student last name, student phone number, and a student ID.Also stored was metadata defined by an application seeking to store thestudent record, with such metadata being utilized for dynamic validationof the student record.

According to further embodiments, related entities are stored on theblockchain and linked with the previously stored record. Consider forexample, a stored student record on the blockchain for which a newstudent transcript is provided.

As depicted here, a link related entity 579 process is performed inwhich retrieved data 572 is modified to add a UUID field 573 identifyingthe related entity, providing a link between the related entity 571 andthe data record previously stored on the blockchain and retrieved 572for modification. This results now in data with the UUID field 574,which has not yet been stored. Next, the data with the UUID field 574linking and identifying the new related entity 571 is then written toand stored within the blockchain, resulting in the stored record nowhaving the original data of the stored record, but also a UUID field 574linking to and identifying the new related entity. Next, the relatedentity 571 is written to the blockchain as metadata with the same UUIDdata field, thus permitting subsequent retrieval of the related entity571 from the blockchain by first referencing the UUID within the storedrecord and then retrieving the linked related entity 571 stored withinthe blockchain as metadata.

Thus, if a student record defines the student's name, phone number, andstudent ID, then a transcript for the student may be stored as metadataon the blockchain. A new UUID is automatically generated for thetranscript to be stored and then within the student record, a relatedentity field within the student record is updated to store the new UUIDgenerated for the transcript, thus linking the student record updatedwith the related entity field identifying the UUID for the transcriptwith the separately stored transcript which is written to the blockchainas stored metadata. In such a way, any number of related entities may beadded to the blockchain, each being stored as metadata within theblockchain and linked to another stored record via the data field forthe related entity. Multiple related entity fields may be added to anyrecord, each using a different UUID to link to and identify the relatedentity in question. For instance, if the student has a transcript andalso medical records, each are separately saved to the blockchain asmetadata, each identified separately by a unique UUID, and each UUIDbeing updated within the student's stored record as separate relatedentity fields. As before, the updated record with the related entityfield identifying the UUID for the separately stored related entity maybe stored in its protobuffed or serialized version.

FIG. 6A depicts another example architecture 601 for retrieving storedrecords from addressable blocks using an indexing scheme, in accordancewith described embodiments. In this example architecture, the blockchainconsensus manager 191 and the permissions manager (not shown) operate tosupport consensus on read and access control processes as furtherdescribed in relation to FIGS. 10-12.

Use of the Merkle tree index 616 or a Merkle DAG tree index permitsretrieval of stored records from the blockchain by going to a particularblock of the blockchain based on the Merkle tree index, thus permittingretrieval of a stored record in a more efficient manner. For instance,the Merkle tree index identifies an address for one of many addressableblocks 618 on the blockchain, then retrieval of the stored recordnegates the need to traverse the blockchain looking for the storedrecord in question and instead permits the retrieval of the storedrecord directly from the block identified by the Merkle tree index.

Thus, as depicted here, processing performs a query 651 to the index 616to identify an address for the desired data, subsequent to which a queryto a specific block 617 is performed to retrieve the stored data at theaddressable block 618 based on the address without having to traversethe blockchain or traverse the tree to find the data.

According to certain embodiments, the index 616 is stored within theblockchain 399 as an entity, for instance, the index may be stored as anasset on the blockchain. Additionally, by storing the stored recordswithin a Merkle tree index 616 which itself is stored onto theblockchain, it is possible to retrieve any data from the index 616 bygoing to a particular block with an index. Thus, if the index is known,it is not necessary to query 651 the index 616 for the address, butinstead, go directly to a node for a known address within the index andreceiving back anything at that node. If the address points to a leafwithin the index 616 then the data stored within the leaf is returnedbased on a direct query to that address within the index 616. If theaddress points to a node having a sub-tree beneath it, such asadditional nodes or simply multiple leafs, then the entire sub-tree isreturned. For instance, if the address ABC is used, then the entire nodehaving hash ABC is returned, including the three leafs beneath thatnode, including the leaf having hash A, the leaf having hash B, and theleaf having hash C.

If the index 616 stores addressing information for specific blockswithin the blockchain, then based on the returned addressinginformation, the specific block of the blockchain may be checked toretrieve the stored record to be retrieved. Alternatively, if theaddressing is stored within the index 616 along with the latestinformation of the stored record, then going to the index 616 using anaddress will return both the addressing information for a block on theblockchain where the stored record is located as well as returning thelatest information of that stored record, thus negating the need toquery the blockchain further.

FIG. 6B depicts another example architecture 602 for building an indexfrom records in the blockchain and maintaining the index, in accordancewith described embodiments. In this example architecture, the blockchainconsensus manager 191 and the permissions manager (not shown) operate tosupport consensus on read and access control processes as furtherdescribed in relation to FIGS. 10-12.

According to a particular embodiment, it is desirable to enableextremely fast access to the data records stored within the blockchainthrough the use of the index 616. As noted above, the index 616 maystore only an address of an addressable block on the blockchain withinwhich the underlying stored record is kept, thus permitting retrieval ofthe record from the blockchain using the address retrieved from theindex 616. Alternatively, both the latest information, that is to say,the up to date and current version of a particular record stored by theblockchain may be stored within the index along with the addressableblock of the blockchain where the underlying stored record is kept bythe blockchain. To be clear, this results in duplicative records beingpersisted. A latest and current version of a record is kept within theblockchain, considered as the authoritative record, however, for thesake of improving query speeds, a second copy of the same record is keptwithin the index 616 along with the address on the blockchain of wherethe authoritative version of that record is maintained.

According to such an embodiment, an index 616 may therefore be built orgenerated by the host organization by referring to the underlying storedrecords within the blockchain.

As shown here, within the blockchain 699 there are multiple storedrecords at different addressable blocks of the blockchain. Stored record691 is located at the root block 684. Stored record 692 located at block685A, stored record 693A located at 685B, and finally an updated record693B is stored at block 685C, with the updated record depreciatingpreviously store record 693A as no longer current.

Any of these stored records may be retrieved from the blockchain bywalking or traversing the blockchain searching for the relevant record,locating the relevant record, and then retrieving the stored record fromthe located block.

Building the index 616 improves the retrieval efficiency of this processby providing at least the address for the block within the blockchainwhere the stored record is kept. As described above, an index 616 withsuch addressing information may be checked, returning the addressableblock of the blockchain for the stored record, and then the storedrecord may be retrieved from the blockchain without having to traverseor walk multiple blocks of the blockchain. For example the index 616 maybe checked for the location of updated record 693B, with the indexreturning the location of addressable blockchain block 685C, and thenblock 685C may be queried directly to retrieve the latest and mostcurrent version of the authoritative stored record which is updatedrecord 693B at standard block 685C.

Alternatively, both the contents or the data of updated record 693B andthe location of addressable blockchain block 685C identifying where themost current version of the authoritative stored record 693B is kept maybe persisted within the index 616, thus wholly negating the need toretrieve anything from the blockchain. While this results in anadditional copy of the updated record 693B being stored within the index616, the speed with which the data of the updated record 693B may beretrieved is vastly improved. This is especially true where the index616 itself is stored within the host organization rather than beingwritten to the blockchain. In such an embodiment, the index 616 ischecked within the host organization 110 and both the location of thestored record is returned as well as the contents or the data of thestored record, with such data corresponding to the copy of the data fromthe stored record in the blockchain being returned from the index 616stored at the host organization. Thus, the application receiving suchinformation is subsequently checked to validate the information storedwithin the blockchain by retrieving the stored record from theblockchain using the location for the stored record within theblockchain as returned by the index 616 or the application may simplyutilize the copy of the data returned from the index 616 itself,depending on the data consistency requirements and concerns of thatparticular application.

Thus, as may be observed here, the data leafs of the index 616 nowinclude not just addressing information providing the location of theblock in question within the blockchain, but additionally persist a copyof the stored record within the blockchain, thus providing duplicativelocations from which to retrieve such data. One copy of the storedrecords is retrievable from the blockchain itself, but a copy of thestored record in the blockchain is also retrievable from the index 616.

As depicted here, the leaf hash A now has a link to location 684, thusproviding the location or addressing information for block 684 on theblockchain 699 where stored record 691 is persisted. However, leaf hashA additionally now has a copy of stored record 691 which is persistedwithin the index 616 itself, thus permitting retrieval of the data orcontents from stored record 618 directly from the index 616 stored onthe host organization without necessarily having to retrieve the storedrecord from the blockchain, despite the blockchain having theauthoritative copy of the stored record 691. By identifying the recordsto be indexed (e.g., all student records for example) and then searchingfor and retrieving those records from the blockchain and recording thelocation of those records within the index 616 along with a copy of thestored records retrieved, such an index 616 may be built and utilizedfor very fast retrieval of the record contents. Further depicted is leafhash B having a link to the blockchain block location 685A along with acopy of stored record 692 located within the index 616 and becausestored records 693A was updated and thus deprecated by stored record693B, the leaf hash C is built with a link to blockchain block location685C along with a copy of the stored record 693B from the blockchain tobe persisted within the index 616 stored at the host organization 110(e.g., within the database system 130 of the host organization 110). Inalternative embodiments where the index 616 is saved within theblockchain retrieval efficiency is still improved as only the index 616needs to be retrieved, which will have within it the duplicative copiesof the stored records as described above.

The index 616 may then be searched much more quickly than searching theblockchain or in the event the hash or address is known for a leaf ornode within the index 616, then the address may be utilized to godirectly to the leaf or node within the index 616 from which allcontents may thus be retrieved. For instance, is the address or hashpoints to a leaf, then the location information for the addressableblock within the blockchain will be returned along with the persistedduplicate copy of the stored record at that blockchain location. If theaddress or hash points to a node with sub-nodes or multiple leafsbeneath it, then the entire sub-tree will be returned, thus providingthe contents of multiple records within the respective leafs(end-points) of the sub-tree returned.

FIG. 6C depicts another example architecture 603 for utilizing anaddressing structure to form an address for retrieving information fromthe index, in accordance with described embodiments. In this examplearchitecture, the blockchain consensus manager 191 and the permissionsmanager 181 operate to support consensus on read and access controlprocesses as further described in relation to FIGS. 10-12.

Structuring of the addresses within the Merkle tree index permits veryfast access to the specific node or leaf within which the locationinformation for the stored records within the blocks on the blockchainis provided as well as, according to certain embodiments, a copy of thestored record. Without the structured address, it is necessary to beginat the root of the Merkle tree index 616 and then step through eachlevel until the desired node or leaf is found. While this traversal ofan index 616 is faster than walking or traversing the blocks of theblockchain, even faster access is realized by referring directly to asingle leaf or a node (and thus it's sub-nodes or leafs) via astructured address as depicted via the addressing structure 640 shownhere.

Specifically depicted here is an addressing data structure 640 for theindexing scheme utilizing the Merkle tree index 616 which is broken intofour primary components which make up a hexadecimal string. The firstportion provides an application namespace of an exemplary 6-10 bits(though the size may differ) in which a specific application may becoded. For instance, the student records discussed above may be definedby and utilized in conjunction with a student record look-up API orinterface coded as “SLDB” (e.g., Student Lookup DataBase) which convertsto hex “534c4442.” This application namespace field is then followed byan entity type identifier of an exemplary 3-4 bits (though the size maydiffer) to identify the type or kind of information stored, such as astored record or a metadata entity or a related entity stored asmetadata, etc. For example, the information may be the contents of astudent record which may be coded as SR which converts to hex “5352” orthe information may be metadata defining a student record which may becoded as MD which converts to hex “4d44” or the information may be arelated entity. Certain related entities are stored as metadata with thesame type identifier (e.g., MD/4d44) or alternatively may be stored asmetadata with a unique entity type identifier, such as being coded REfor a related entity which converts to hex “5245.”

Next, within the addressing structure 640 is the name of the entity ordata record of an exemplary 10-20 bits (though the size may differ) tospecify what is being stored (not the contents, but the name of thestored information). Thus, metadata defining a student record may becoded as SRAMID (e.g., for Student Record Application MetaData) whichconverts to hex “5352414d4420” or the stored information may be thestudent record itself, thus being named STUDREC (e.g., for StudentRecord) which converts to hex “5354554452454320” or perhaps the storedinformation is a related entity within which there is stored a student'stranscript named TRNSCRPT which converts to hex “54524e534352505420” orthe stored information may be a stored a student's medical records namedMEDREC which converts to hex “4d454452454320” information may be arelated entity. Any extra space for the respective portions of theaddressing structure may be padded with leading zeros depending on theapplication's use and means of parsing such data.

Lastly, there is a contents or payload portion of the addressingstructure having therein the actual information to be stored, such asthe contents of a stored record (e.g., the values making up a student'srecord), or metadata defining a record (e.g., the metadata by which todefine, validate, structure, mask, or type the actual stored contents.Similarly, there may be stored within the payload or contents portion ofthe addressing structure 640, metadata identifying a related entity viaa linked UUID which corresponds to a UUID field within a stored record(e.g., a student record may include a related entity field with a UUIDfor a student's transcript, thus linking the student's record with thestudent's separately stored transcript within a related entity metadatastored asset on the blockchain).

Within the payload or contents portion of the addressing structure 640,the application developer utilizing the indexing scheme has nearlyunlimited flexibility of what may be stored, up to the size limitsimposed, such as a 70 bit total limit for an extremely small, efficient,albeit restrictive addressing structure 640 up to n bits (e.g., hundredsor thousands depending on the use case) within which significantly moreinformation may be stored.

Because the information is stored as a hexadecimal string, theinformation may easily be protobuffed, serialized, encrypted, anddecrypted as well as every efficiently transmitted across networks andutilized by heterogeneous applications without regard to any specializedformats.

FIG. 6D depicts another exemplary architecture 604 for utilizing anaddress to retrieve information from the index, in accordance withdescribed embodiments. In this example architecture, the blockchainconsensus manager 191 and the permissions manager 181 operate to supportconsensus on read and access control processes as further described inrelation to FIGS. 10-12.

As depicted here, the query interface 180 provides an address 653 viawhich to perform a query 652 against the index using the address, thuspermitting direct retrieval from the index 616 of either a leaf or asub-tree of the index 616 depending on what retrieved data is queriedfor via the address.

Consider a query 652 against the index 616 address using the indexingscheme and address structure from the example above.

For example, the application namespace for a student record look-up APIor interface is coded as “SLDB” (e.g., Student Lookup DataBase) whichconverts to hex “534c4442” followed by the type or kind of informationstored coded as MD (for metadata) which converts to hex “4d44” followedby metadata defining a student record coded as SRAMD which converts tohex “5352414d4420.”

This results in an address of 534c4442+4d44+5352414d4420 or534c44424d445352414d4420. It is not necessary to define the address forthe contents or payload since this is the data being retrieved, however,such data may be written to the index using the above addressconcatenated with the hexadecimal representation of the contents orpayload.

Nevertheless, querying against the index 616 using the address534c4442+4d44+5352414d4420 provides a fully qualified address down to aleaf in the Merkle tree index having therein the payload or contents tobe retrieved, which in this case is the metadata for an applicationcalled “SLDB” (e.g., Student Lookup DataBase) which defines the codingof student records for that application.

Similarly, if a student record is to be retrieved, then querying theindex 616 using the address 534c4442 (for the Student LookupDataBase)+5352 (for SR or a Student Record)+5354554452454320 provides afully qualified address down to a leaf in the Merkle tree index havingtherein the student record payload or contents to be retrieved, which inthis case is the student record information for the application called“SLDB” (e.g., Student Lookup DataBase) which is defined by the metadataretrieved above. If the student's UUID or student ID is utilized as aleading portion of the stored student record payload, then the addressmay be further qualified to retrieve a specific record's contents onlyfor that particular student.

Another benefit of such an indexing scheme is the ability to query forinformation using a non-fully-qualified address or a partial address.For example, continuing with the above example, the developer maytrigger the index to return all the metadata for their specificapplication by submitting a partial address to the index 616 for directretrieval by specifying their address and the entity type identifier fortheir metadata. Thus, such a partial address forms the hex string forthe application namespace portion corresponding to the “SLDB” (e.g.,Student Lookup DataBase) which converts to hex “534c4442” followed bythe type or kind of information stored coded as MD (for metadata) whichconverts to hex “4d44,” thus resulting in 534c4442+4d44 or simply534c44424d44.

Querying the index 616 for direct retrieval using this partial addresswill cause the index to return all metadata for the “SLDB” (e.g.,Student Lookup DataBase) application, regardless of what such metadatais named or how many leafs or sub-trees are consumed to store such data.More particularly, querying the index 616 using the partial address willreturn an entire sub-tree below the node of the Merkle tree index hashedwith the hex string 534c4442+4d44. Similarly, all student records may beretrieved (via an entire sub-tree being returned) by specifying apartial address for direct retrieval, such as specifying to the query ofthe index 616 the address 534c4442 (for the Student LookupDataBase)+5352 (for SR or a Student Record) without any specificallynamed student records.

In the event the contents or payload information in the index includesboth the location information for the stored record within theblockchain as well as the contents of the stored record copied from theblockchain into the index 616, then it is not necessary to retrieveanything further from the blockchain. If only the location informationof the contents within a specified block of the blockchain is provided(thus resulting in a much smaller storage volume and faster retrievaldue to a smaller index) then the blockchain services interface 190 willsubsequently utilize the location information to fetch the contents ofthe stored record directly from the specified block on the blockchainwithout having to traverse or walk multiple blocks of the blockchain insearch of the specified stored record.

FIG. 6E depicts another exemplary architecture 605 for incrementallyupdating a blockchain asset for stored records using an index to storecurrent updates, in accordance with described embodiments. In thisexample architecture, the blockchain consensus manager 191 and thepermissions manager 181 operate to support consensus on read and accesscontrol processes as further described in relation to FIGS. 10-12.

In certain situations, it is desirable to store information within theblockchain, however, the volume and frequency of information updates forthe stored records render use of the blockchain impractical given thatblockchain storage is very poorly suited for information storage withmany updates at a high frequency.

As shown here, an incoming data stream 681 with many updates is receivedat the host organization and the updates are written into the index 616resulting in the data stream updates being stored via the index as shownat element 682. Periodically, incremental updates are then written intothe blockchain by, for example, transacting with the blockchain to add anew asset having the stored record(s) with the incremental updates takenfrom the index 616 and pushed into the blockchain as stored records. Forexample, stored record 684A is initially stored on the blockchain 699with an initial batch of data from the data stream. Next, more datastream updates are written first to the index 616 at the hostorganization and after a period of time, the incremental updates arethen again written to the blockchain, resulting in repetitiveincremental updates shown here as incremental update 684B, thenincremental update 684C, and then incremental update 684D, and so on.

Consider for example the storage of an information stream from IoTdevices (Internet of Things) devices which are reporting varioustelemetry data such as status, errors, location, events, configurationchanges, etc. If the collection of such data scales to a large group ofIoT devices in the hundreds the blockchain may be overwhelmed due to thefrequency of data storage requests.

However, storing the information within the index 616, especially whenthe index is stored within the host organization, overcomes this problemas the database system 130 of the host organization easily accommodatesa high frequency of database updates and interactions.

Therefore, in the event it is nevertheless desired to make such dataavailable on the blockchain and to be stored upon the blockchain, thenthe frequency problem may be overcome by first writing the many updates(e.g., from the IoT devices or other such updates) directly into theindex 616 within the host organization 110 and then periodically writingincremental updates to the blockchain for persistent storage of the datawithin the blockchain. For example, IoT device data streams may becollected by the host organization 110 into the index and then onceevery 24 hours (or some other period) the incremental update to the IoTdevice data stream (measured from the last update to the blockchain tothe currently available data) is then pushed, flushed, added, ortransacted onto the blockchain. Thus, the latest block of the blockchainthen persistently stores the latest portion of the IoT device datastream and thus be accessible directly from the blockchain oralternatively available from the index 616 at the host organization.

In certain embodiments, the index purges or flushes the incremental databy storing the incremental update to the blockchain and then the indexremoves the stored contents or payload portion from the index 616 andretains only the block location information on the blockchain via whichto locate the underlying stored records. Stated differently, once theincremental information is written to the blockchain, the index 616 maybe cleaned up such that it retains where to locate the stored recordshaving the incremental information on a specific block of theblockchain, but the index 616 itself no longer retains the contents ofsuch stored records as they are available within the blockchain andbecause such data, which grows very quickly, may slow the index in anundesirable manner.

Pushing the whole change (e.g., all of the IoT data stream evercollected) to the blockchain in its entirety is problematic as all dataprior to the incremental update is replicated over and over again withinthe blockchain. Thus, pushing only the incremental changes or updates tothe blockchain provides efficient use of the blockchain for purposes ofstorage and efficient use of the index 616 by which to buffer theincoming data stream or incoming high frequency updates as well as viawhich the index 616 permits fast identification of location informationindicating where the incremental information is stored (e.g., withinwhich block) on the blockchain.

FIG. 7A depicts another example architecture 701 in accordance withdescribed embodiments.

Many customer organizations and businesses operate in a network-centricmanner as they are obligated by the marketplace to solve customerproblems. Therefore, it becomes necessary for businesses, includingsometimes unrelated business organizations, to share data amongst oneanother on behalf of their customers.

Understandably, however, different businesses have a fundamental lack oftrust in one another. Thus, many businesses find themselves in asituation today where they need to share data to satisfy theircustomers, and yet, they cannot trust that the other businesses withwhom they share data can be trusted.

Distributed Ledger Technology and blockchain platforms specificallysolve the issue of trust as is described above. This is true becausedata written onto the blockchain is immutable insomuch that updates maybe provided, but the historical data is always accessible, and furtherstill, all participating nodes for the blockchain cooperativelycontribute to consensus based upon an agreed consensus model. Theexception to this is the modified DLT technology discussed above forwhich a shared ledger (e.g., element 157 at FIG. 1C, et seq.) is hostedinternally to a host organization and for which the host organizationoperates as the single and centralized trust authority, or alternativelyfor which trust determination is delegated to a customer organizationoperating a modified DLT shared ledger instance 157, pursuant to whichthe customer organization then determines for themselves who has accessrights, such as what partner organizations or users, etc., have consentfrom the customer organization to access data in the modified DLT sharedledger.

Therefore, utilization of DLT technologies and blockchain technologyspecifically is considered to solve the issue of trust amongstbusinesses wishing to share data.

Notwithstanding the issue of trust having been largely solved, thereremains two further obstacles which prevent adoption of the technology.

Firstly, adoption of blockchain is technologically complex andexceedingly difficult for most business to implement on their own. Evena technical evaluation of such data requires specialized computerprogrammers and developers having adequate skill in this particular areaof expertise coupled with an understanding of the needs of the business,often provided by a technical business analyst, and then the procurementof additional computing infrastructure and either the development of ablockchain platform and protocol themselves or the identification andthen participation with an existing public or private blockchain thatmeets the needs of the business. These developers must understand how topackage and transact assets (sometimes called “coins”) onto theblockchain and how to transfer those assets, within which theirinformation of interest is embedded, between nodes and make such dataavailable to other participating nodes on the blockchain, such that theinformation may be shared. Further still, there needs to be a consensusmodel by such a blockchain which is acceptable to the business. Forthese reasons alone, adoption of blockchain technologies, thoughpromising, remains an insurmountable burden for many businesses.

Secondly, even assuming the above mentioned obstacles are overcome,there remains a significant problem with data standardization acrossapplications for information which is written to, stored within, orpersisted by the blockchain. For instance, even assuming a businessmanages to transact information to the blockchain and make that dataaccessible to another business, there simply is no guarantee whatsoeverthat the information written to the blockchain by a first business willbe understandable by a second business. Therefore, the transportabilityof data amongst businesses wishing to share data presents anothersignificant problem, due to the lack of standardization of data writtenonto the variously available blockchain platforms.

Consider the exemplary depiction shown here at FIG. 7, in which thereare two businesses 705A and 705B, which have managed to agree to sharedata with one another and have successfully implemented the necessarycomputing architecture to transact with a blockchain 699.

With all data sharing agreements in place, business 705A creates anasset via its application #1 executing at the user client device 706A,and as depicted, embeds a customer record into that asset 714 which isto then be transacted onto the blockchain 699. As shown here,application #1 creates the asset with the following information:

-   -   Data Format Used:    -   First_Name=John    -   Last_Name=Doe    -   Phone_Number=###-###-####    -   E_Mail_Address=J.Doe@Email.com

Notably, for this record, there are four fields, including “First_Name”and “Last_Name” followed by “Phone_Number” which has a particular formatmask used as well in which there are hyphens “-” required in betweencertain digits, and finally an email address which has a fieldidentifier of “E_Mail_Address.”

Each of the various fields are then populated with data.

The created asset is then transacted onto the blockchain 699 as depictedby the asset written 715 onto the blockchain and at some later time,business 705B elects to retrieve the information via its own application#2.

As shown here, business 705B transacts with the blockchain and the assetretrieved 716 is successfully transmitted to the application #2executing at user client device 706B.

All seems well, until the application #2 utilizes its own understandingof the data to interpret the asset 717 via the code executing atapplication #2, which expects the following information:

-   -   Data Format Expected:    -   Customer_Name=“John Doe”    -   Phone=##########    -   email=“J.Doe@Email.com”    -   RETRIEVAL ERROR:    -   - - - >No Data Found in Asset

As might be expected, application #2 encounters a retrieval errormessage: “No Data found in Asset.”

This is the result when application #2 looks for a field named“Customer_Name” and yet there is no such field. Application #2additionally looks for the field “Phone” and finds no such field, andfinally searches for “email” and again finds no such field.

While a human reader may readily understand that “First_Name” with thevalue “John” represents a sub-portion of the field “Customer_Name,” suchlogic simply is not available within applications and computing programswhich simply search for the field name that they are instructed (e.g.,programmed) to search for, which is “Customer_Name” and not acombination of “First_Name” and “Last_Name.”

While such a conversion between the two field types would be trivial forany programmer, the fact remains that the two applications by each ofthe respective businesses are simply incompatible, and if they are to bemade compatible, then custom translation for these fields needs to beprogrammed.

Fundamentally, the non-transferability of this date is due to a lack ofdata standardization. The two distinct application entities each areenabled to write to the blockchain and retrieve from it, and anagreement is in place between the businesses to share such data, andyet, the two entity applications lack the ability to share the databecause there is no definition of what constitutes a customer's name.One application expects this to be a combination of “First_Name” and“Last_Name” fields whereas another application expects the field“Customer_Name” to be utilized as a single field for the customer's fullname.

FIG. 7B depicts another exemplary architecture 702 in accordance withdescribed embodiments.

In particular, there is now depicted a blockchain administrator definingmetadata for the data utilized by an application which then standardizesthe data which is written onto the blockchain on behalf of the twobusinesses, business 705A and business 705B.

As depicted here, the blockchain administrator defines metadata via theintegration builder's GUIs or via the integration builder's API, andthat defined metadata 721 is then pushed onto the specified blockchain799.

Now, there is, transacted onto the blockchain, a clearly definedmetadata specifying the requirements for the declared application“ApplicationXYZ” and specifically for the “Customer_Record,” which isnow structured as follows, as per the defined metadata:

-   -   DEFINED METADATA REQUIREMENTS    -   Declared Application=ApplicationXYZ    -   Customer_Record    -   First_Name=$string    -   Last_Name=$string    -   Phone_Number=$NumericString    -   E_Mail_Address=$emailString

Because the defined metadata 721 is transacted onto the blockchain, anyapplication with permission to access data records on the blockchain 799will be able to read and write data in compliance with the requirementsspecified by the defined metadata 721. This may be the specificallydeclared application, “ApplicationXYZ,” or this may be otherapplications which utilized the data generated or managed by thedeclared application. Any application can read out the defined metadata721 and operate in compliance with the requirements.

FIG. 7C depicts another exemplary architecture 703 in accordance withdescribed embodiments.

In particular, it is now depicted that businesses 705A and 705B areenabled to share data transacted onto the blockchain 799 and because thedefined metadata 721 specifies the requirements for formatting suchdata, the data written to the blockchain 799 and retrieved from theblockchain will embody a known format, and thus be transferable betweenthe various businesses.

As shown here, the blockchain administrator defines the metadata via theblockchain services interface 190 which is transacted onto theblockchain, and then later, business 705A creates an asset 714 viaapplication #1 and it writes that asset having the details of a customerrecord into the blockchain. Subsequently, business 705B retrieves theasset from the blockchain and when the asset is interpreted 717 viaapplication #2 executing at business 705B, that data is successfullyinterpreted and understood by the application because there is a knownand defined metadata structure for the customer record data.

Therefore, according to a particular embodiment, there are operations bya system of a host organization that declare a new application andtransact defined metadata for the new application onto a blockchain. Forinstance, such operations may include operating a blockchain interfaceto the blockchain on behalf of a plurality of tenants of the hostorganization, in which each one of the plurality of tenants operate as aparticipating node with access to the blockchain. Such operations mayfurther include, receiving, from a user device communicably interfacedwith the system, first input declaring the new application. Suchoperations may further include, receiving second input from the userdevice adding a plurality of network participants for the newapplication, in which the network participants are granted access rightsto the new application. Such operations may further include, receivingthird input from the user device declaring a plurality of entity typesfor the new application. Such operations may further include, receivingfourth input from the user device declaring one or more new fielddefinitions for each of the plurality of entity types. Such operationsmay further include, generating a blockchain asset having encodedtherein as the defined metadata for the new application, at least (i)the plurality of network participants declared, (ii) the plurality ofentity types declared, and (iii) the one or more new field definitionsdeclared for each of the plurality of entity types. Such operations mayfurther include, transacting the blockchain asset having the definedmetadata encoded therein for the new application onto the blockchain.

According to the operations of another embodiment, the blockchain assethas a defined transaction type; and in which the defined transactiontype for the blockchain asset having the defined metadata encodedtherein associates the defined metadata for the new application with asmart contract to execute data validation for any data transacted ontothe blockchain for the new application; in which the smart contractvalidates the data transacted onto the blockchain for the newapplication is in compliance with the defined metadata for the newapplication transacted onto the blockchain.

According to another embodiment such operations may further include:receiving a transaction at the blockchain specifying data for the newapplication; and triggering a smart contract based on the receivedtransaction specifying the data for the new application; and executingthe smart contract to validate the specified data for the newapplication is in compliance with the defined metadata for the newapplication; and in which the transaction is rejected if the specifieddata is non-compliant with the defined metadata for the new application.

According to the operations of another embodiment, transacting theblockchain asset onto the blockchain includes: adding a transaction to anew block on the blockchain specifying the defined metadata for the newapplication as payload data for the transaction; subjecting the addedtransaction to consensus by participating nodes of the blockchain, inwhich the added transaction is subjected to a consensus protocol by theparticipating nodes of the blockchain prior to the added transactionbeing accepted as part of a primary chain of the blockchain by theparticipating nodes of the blockchain; and in which the defined metadatafor the new application is persisted within an accepted transaction on anew block of the blockchain pursuant to successful consensus for theadded transaction.

According to another embodiment such operations may further include:receiving new input at the system, in which the new input declares asecond new application; and receiving additional input at the systemselecting one of the plurality of entity types declared for the firstnew application as a selected entity type for the second newapplication, in which the selected entity type inherits the one or morenew field definitions as specified via the defined metadata for therespective one or more entity types associated with the first newapplication.

According to the operations of another embodiment, multiple differentdeclared applications specify at least one of the plurality of entitytypes declared for the first new application as a selected entity typefor the multiple different declared applications; and in which a singleinstance of the defined metadata corresponding to the respective one ofthe plurality of entity types declared for the first new application andall of the one or more new field definitions associated with therespective entity type declared for the first new application controlsboth (i) the respective one of the plurality of entity types declaredfor the first new application and (ii) the selected entity type for allof the multiple different declared applications having selected therespective entity type declared for the first application.

According to the operations of another embodiment, receiving the fourthinput from the user device declaring one or more new field definitionsfor each of the plurality of entity types further includes receiving thefourth input defining a field definition type for each of the one ormore new field definitions; and in which each field definition type isselected from the group including: integer, Boolean, numeric,alphanumeric, date, hyperlink, computed, or custom.

According to another embodiment such operations may further include:authenticating the user device with the host organization as beingassociated with one of the plurality of tenants; and in which the one ofthe plurality of tenant is a subscriber to cloud based on-demandservices provided by the host organization over a public Internet.

According to another embodiment such operations may further include:executing an event listener to monitor any changes to the blockchainassociated with the new application; and triggering an event when thechanges to the blockchain associated with the new application areobserved by the event listener.

According to another embodiment such operations may further include:receiving fifth input from the user device declaring an event and one ormore monitored event conditions for the new application declared; inwhich the declared event specifies one of: (i) a process flow to executeat the host organization responsive to occurrence of the event at theblockchain or (ii) a database transaction to execute against a databasesystem internal to the host organization responsive to occurrence of theevent at the blockchain; and monitoring, via an event listener, for anychange to the blockchain meeting the specified event and the one or moreevent conditions.

According to the operations of another embodiment, each networkparticipant is granted access rights to the new application and to dataon the blockchain associated with the new application.

According to the operations of another embodiment, each of the pluralityof network participants are selected from among the group including: auser of the host organization associated with one of the plurality oftenants of the host organization; a partner user corresponding to one ofthe plurality of tenants of the host organization; a customerorganization corresponding to one of the plurality of tenants of thehost organization; a non-user of the host organization; a partnerorganization which is not one of the plurality of tenants of the hostorganization; and one or more participating nodes on the blockchainwhich correspond to either a tenant of the host organization or acustomer organization which subscribes to cloud computing services fromthe host organization; and one or more participating nodes on theblockchain which do not subscribe to cloud computing services from thehost organization.

According to the operations of another embodiment, receiving the firstinput from the user device declaring the application further includes:receiving with the first input for the new application declared one orboth of specified administrative control for the new application orownership for the new application declared.

According to another embodiment such operations may further include:receiving instructions to deploy the new application declared and thedefined metadata for the new application onto the blockchain; and inwhich transacting the blockchain asset having the defined metadataencoded therein for the new application onto the blockchain includesdeploying the new application and the defined metadata via theblockchain responsive to receiving the instructions to deploy.

According to the operations of another embodiment, receiving the inputsdefining each of (i) the plurality of network participants declared,(ii) the plurality of entity types declared, and (iii) the one or morenew field definitions declared for each of the plurality of entity typesincludes receiving the inputs as programming code via an API at ablockchain metadata definition manager exposed by the host organization.

According to another embodiment such operations may further include:transmitting a GUI to the user device from a blockchain metadatadefinition manager, in which the GUI prompts for the inputs definingeach of (i) the plurality of network participants declared, (ii) theplurality of entity types declared, and (iii) the one or more new fielddefinitions declared for each of the plurality of entity types; in whichthe inputs are received at the GUI via one or more interactive clickevents, drag events, drop down selection events, text input events, andtouch events; and in which receiving the inputs includes receiving theinputs from the GUI transmitted to the user device.

According to the operations of another embodiment, the blockchainprotocol for the blockchain is defined by the host organization andfurther in which the host organization permits access to the blockchainfor the plurality of tenants of the host organization operating asparticipating nodes on the blockchain; or alternatively in which theblockchain protocol for the blockchain is defined by a third partyblockchain provider other than the host organization and further inwhich the host organization also operates as a participating node on theblockchain via which the host organization has access to the blockchain.

According to another embodiment such operations may further include:receiving an SQL query at a receive interface requesting data associatedwith the new application; translating the SQL query into nativeblockchain executable code via an Apex translator engine at the hostorganization; executing the native blockchain executable code againstthe blockchain to retrieve the data requested; and returning the datarequested responsive to receipt of the SQL query.

According to another embodiment such operations may further include:generating a virtual table within a database system of the hostorganization; and structuring the virtual table at the database systemof the host organization based on the metadata declared for the newapplication; in which entity types are represented as tables within thevirtual table and further in which the one or more new field definitionsdeclared for each of the plurality of more entity types for the newapplication are represented as columns within the tables at the virtualtable.

According to the operations of another embodiment, the virtual tableincludes a materialized view hosted at the database system of the hostorganization structured based on the metadata declared for the newapplication; and in which the materialized view hosted at the databasesystem of the host organization does not store any data associated withthe new application; and in which SQL queries requesting read-onlyaccess are processed against the materialized view by translating theread-only SQL queries into a blockchain transaction to retrieve therequested data associated with the new application from the blockchain.

According to another embodiment such operations may further include:retrieving the defined metadata for the new application from theblockchain, including plurality of entity types declared for the newapplication, the one or more new field definitions declared for each ofthe plurality of entity types, and any field types applied to the one ormore new field definitions; generating a materialized view of the datapersisted with the blockchain within a virtual table at the hostorganization by structuring the virtual table based on the definedmetadata for the new application; in which the materialized viewrepresents the structure of the data associated with the new applicationwhich is persisted to the blockchain without storing the data associatedwith the new application within the materialized view at the hostorganization.

According to another embodiment such operations may further include:receiving, at the host organization, an SQL statement from a userdevice, in which the SQL statement is directed toward the materializedview requesting an SQL update or an SQL insert for the data persisted tothe blockchain and associated with the new application; processing theSQL statement against the materialized view by translating the SQLstatement requesting the SQL update or the SQL insert into acorresponding blockchain transaction to update or add the dataassociated with the new application at the blockchain; and issuing anacknowledgement to the user device confirming successful processing ofthe SQL statement against the materialized view pursuant to thecorresponding blockchain transaction being accepted by consensus to theblockchain and successfully updating or adding the data associated withthe new application at the blockchain.

According to another embodiment such operations may further include:receiving an SQL statement directed toward the materialized view at thehost organization; in which the SQL statement specifies one or more of(i) a SELECT from SQL statement, (ii) an INSERT into SQL statement, and(iii) an UPDATE set SQL statement; and in which the SQL statementreceived is processed by translating the SQL statement into acorresponding blockchain transaction and executing the correspondingblockchain transaction against the blockchain in fulfillment of the SQLstatement directed toward the materialized view at the hostorganization.

According to another embodiment such operations may further include: inwhich the metadata defined for the new application represents userspecified relationships between two or more of the plurality of entitytypes by linking together assets at the blockchain.

According to another embodiment such operations may further include:declaring, at the host organization, new business logic for the newapplication within a table structure having one or more relationshipsbetween elements of the new business logic and one or more of theplurality of entity types for the new application; and defining the newbusiness logic any all relationships within the metadata persisted tothe blockchain.

According to another embodiment such operations may further include:executing an event listener to monitor for any changes to the definedmetadata for the new application at the blockchain; and triggering anevent when the changes to the metadata for the new application at theblockchain are observed by the event listener; and in which thetriggered event automatically pushes a metadata update to the hostorganization to update a materialized view of the data associated withthe new application by re-structuring the materialized view at the hostorganization based on the metadata update triggered by the eventlistener.

According to the operations of another embodiment, triggering the eventvia the event listener based on changes to the metadata for the newapplication further includes: triggering one or more of: a business userdefined process flow to execute responsive to changes to the definedmetadata persisted to the blockchain; a business user defined dataretrieval operation to execute responsive to changes to the definedmetadata persisted to the blockchain; a business user defined datafiltering operation to execute responsive to changes to the definedmetadata persisted to the blockchain; an administrator defined processflow to update a data analytics feed responsive to changes to thedefined metadata persisted to the blockchain; and an administratordefined process flow to update an Artificial Intelligence (AI) trainingdata stream responsive to changes to the defined metadata persisted tothe blockchain.

According to a particular embodiment, there is non-transitorycomputer-readable storage media having instructions stored thereuponthat, when executed by a processor of a system having at least aprocessor and a memory therein, the instructions cause the system toperform operations including: operating a blockchain interface to theblockchain on behalf of a plurality of tenants of the host organization,in which each one of the plurality of tenants operate as a participatingnode with access to the blockchain; receiving, from a user devicecommunicably interfaced with the system, first input declaring a newapplication; receiving second input from the user device adding aplurality of network participants for the new application, in which thenetwork participants are granted access rights to the new application;receiving third input from the user device declaring a plurality ofentity types for the new application; receiving fourth input from theuser device declaring one or more new field definitions for each of theplurality of entity types; generating a blockchain asset having encodedtherein as the defined metadata for the new application, at least (i)the plurality of network participants declared, (ii) the plurality ofentity types declared, and (iii) the one or more new field definitionsdeclared for each of the plurality of entity types; and transacting theblockchain asset having the defined metadata encoded therein for the newapplication onto the blockchain.

According to yet another embodiment, there is a system to execute at ahost organization, in which the system includes: a memory to storeinstructions; a processor to execute instructions; in which theprocessor is to execute a blockchain services interface on behalf of onbehalf of a plurality of tenants of the host organization, in which eachone of the plurality of tenants operate as a participating node withaccess to the blockchain; a receive interface to receive first inputfrom a user device communicably interfaced with the system, the receivedfirst input declaring a new application; the receive interface tofurther receive second input from the user device adding a plurality ofnetwork participants for the new application, in which the networkparticipants are granted access rights to the new application; thereceive interface to further receive third input from the user devicedeclaring a plurality of entity types for the new application; thereceive interface to further receive fourth input from the user devicedeclaring one or more new field definitions for each of the plurality ofentity types; a blockchain services interface to generate a blockchainasset having encoded therein as the defined metadata for the newapplication, at least (i) the plurality of network participantsdeclared, (ii) the plurality of entity types declared, and (iii) the oneor more new field definitions declared for each of the plurality ofentity types; and in which the blockchain services interface further isto transact the blockchain asset having the defined metadata encodedtherein for the new application onto the blockchain.

According to the embodiment of the system, the receive interface isfurther to receive fifth input from the user device declaring an eventand one or more monitored event conditions for the new applicationdeclared; in which the declared event specifies one of: (i) a processflow to execute at the host organization responsive to occurrence of theevent at the blockchain or (ii) a database transaction to executeagainst a database system internal to the host organization responsiveto occurrence of the event at the blockchain; and in which the systemfurther includes an event listener, in which the event listener is tomonitor for any change to the blockchain meeting the specified event andthe one or more event conditions and trigger the declared eventresponsive to a monitored change on the blockchain.

FIG. 8A depicts another exemplary architecture 801 in accordance withdescribed embodiments.

As shown here, there is a GUI 810 executing at a computing device 899,such as a user device of the blockchain administrator, with the GUI 810being pushed to the computing device 800 by the blockchain metadatadefinition manager 196 of the host organization.

As shown here, the blockchain administrator may view the deployedapplications as shown at the top of the GUI 810 and by clicking the“new” button at the GUI 810, the declarative capability is provided forthe blockchain administrator to declare a new application. Whiledepicted here is the declaration of a new application via the GUI 810,the blockchain administrator may alternatively utilize an API providedvia the blockchain metadata definition manager 196 to create the newapplication.

FIG. 8B depicts another exemplary architecture 802 in accordance withdescribed embodiments.

In addition to the declaration of the new application or declaring thenew application, there is additionally the ability for the blockchainadministrator to define what participants have access to the dataassociated with this particular application, thus defining the networkparticipants for this newly declared application.

FIG. 8C depicts another exemplary architecture 803 in accordance withdescribed embodiments.

There is again depicted the GUI 810, however, now depicted is theblockchain administrator viewing and editing entities for the “bankrecord application” by clicking on that application.

Thus, the blockchain administrator may first declare or create a new“application” and then once created, the blockchain administrator mayedit or view that application and may create or declare new “entities”within the application, with each declarative entity defining themetadata for a particular custom field within which the application mayultimately store information in compliance with the defined metadata andwhich other applications may also interact with such data and referencesuch data, and possibly update, add to, or delete such data whereadequate permissions exist, but again, doing so in compliance with thedefined metadata.

For example, there is defined here for the bank record application, a“claim” having the entity name “Auto_Claim” and thus, any applicationwishing to write information to the blockchain pertaining to claims, atleast to the extent such information will be utilized by the bank recordapplication, then it is necessary to comply with the requirements of thedefined entity “Auto_Claim.”

FIG. 8D depicts another exemplary architecture 804 in accordance withdescribed embodiments.

Depicted here is a GUI 810 resulting from the blockchain administratorclicking on the “new” button on the prior screen to declare and create anew entity within the newly created application, or within a viewedapplication.

As shown here, there is a “New Entity Definition” GUI presented, inwhich the blockchain administrator can now create a new entity byentering the entity name, entity label, and selecting an owner for theentity, which by default is the user creating the entity. Clicking savethen creates and declares this new entity. The blockchain administratormay additionally change the status to “deployed” and once saved, theentity will be transacted onto the blockchain, whereas in draft status,it will be retained only at the host organization's blockchain metadatadefinition manager 196.

According to a particular embodiment, every GUI has a corresponding APIvia which to interact with the blockchain metadata definition manager196.

FIG. 8E depicts another exemplary architecture 805 in accordance withdescribed embodiments.

Clicking on an existing entity, including the one just created at theprior GUI 810 as depicted at FIG. 8D, will result in the FieldDefinition GUI being presented, via which the blockchain administratormay now create any number of fields which are to be stored within thatparticular entity.

By way of analogy, it may be helpful to think of the declaredapplication as a computer program, albeit one that runs via the cloud,and the declarative entities as tables comparable to tables in arelational database, and finally the declarative fields as columnidentifiers or populatable fields within a table, and lastly, thecollection of fields would thus form a record. While the comparison isnot exact, relationships between the various declarative elements andthe metadata defined for them should help to illustrate their use.

Because the defined metadata specifies precisely what data ispermissible, and the format and type of that data, any permittedapplication may then both successfully write information to theblockchain in a predictable and pre-defined format as specified by themetadata and additionally, applications with whom they are sharing mayalso successfully retrieve the information from the blockchain, knowingbased on the defined metadata, how that information is supposed to look,and be structured, and thus how that information is to be interpreted.

Because the information is defined in blockchain via the metadata, allthe participants know what each element of data means, based on thedefined metadata, and therefore, for that network of participants, allparticipating nodes can share information via the blockchain.

Moreover, the participants are not restricted to the existing metadatatransacted onto the blockchain, but they may create additional elements,create new metadata definitions, alter metadata definitions, etc.

For example, Bank Wells Fargo may decide that they, as a participant,require a new entity having fields X, Y, and Z. That participant maytherefore define that metadata for the new entity (via the API or theGUI) having the fields X, Y, and Z, and then transact that new entityonto the blockchain.

The new entity will then be subjected to consensus by the otherparticipating nodes. If the other participating nodes disagree, thenconsensus is not reached, and the change is negated. However, ifconsensus is reached, then the new entity having fields X, Y, and Z istransacted onto the blockchain by writing the defined metadata for thatnew entity onto the blockchain within a consensus block, or stateddifferently, the entity having already been written onto the blockchain,once consensus is attained, becomes a part of the “primary” chain on theblockchain which is accepted by all participants as the main chain.

According to another embodiment, smart contracts are executed fortransactions on the blockchain which attempt to write or update data onthe blockchain for an entity having defined metadata. For instance,there may be a trigger which causes the execution of the smart contract,in which case the smart contract retrieves or applies the definedmetadata to validate that every field within the entity has a data type,data naming compliance, and a date mask which is in compliance with therequirements of the defined metadata.

Where the smart contract enforces the defined metadata, any transactionwhich fails compliance is either prohibited from being transacted ontothe blockchain or if written to the blockchain, the transaction willnever be accepted into a block on the main chain as the smart contractvalidation failure will prevent the transaction from reaching consensusfor acceptance.

Thus, through the use of the described GUIs, it is possible for businessusers lacking programming and program development expertise tonevertheless declare a new application and declare new entity names aswell as declaratively create new field definitions for those entitynames. For those with greater technical expertise, they may utilize theAPIs to interact with the blockchain metadata definition manager 196, ifit is preferable for them to do so.

Regardless of the method chosen, the blockchain administrator candeclaratively create a new application, new entities, and new fielddefinitions, all without writing any code whatsoever, and the blockchainmetadata definition manager 196 will then transact the defined metadatafor the new application, the new entity, and/or the new fielddefinitions onto the blockchain for voting and consensus.

Until consensus is reached, the defined metadata cannot be utilized.However, once transacted onto the blockchain and consensus is reached,then other participating nodes or participants on the blockchain caninteract with all data for the declared application and the smartcontract execution by the blockchain services interface 190 will forceor mandate compliance with those interactions.

FIG. 8F depicts another exemplary architecture 806 in accordance withdescribed embodiments.

Depicted here is the generated code which is created on behalf of theblockchain administrator's declarative actions to define the applicationand declare the entity and declare the various defined fields, resultingin the API compliant code being represented within the defined metadata,despite no code having been written by the blockchain administrator. Inother embodiments, a programmer or developer may elect to utilize theAPI to generate this code, in which case the GUIs will reflect the codedentities and the coded defined fields, just as if they had been declaredvia the GUIs originally.

Thus, the disclosed platform permits the creation of the necessary codeto transact with the blockchain and to interact with the blockchain andto define and declare an application, and entities for that application(which may be depicted as tables within a database system via amaterialized view as is discussed below), and to further define anddeclare new field definitions for each entity, and also definepermissible network participants which may utilize the declaredapplication.

In such a way, the declarative metadata platform performs all the heavylifting on behalf of the blockchain administrator, allowing anon-programmer to create all the necessary code to interact with theblockchain for the newly declared application by using only point andclick actions through a series of GUIs.

Moreover, the constructs of an application, and allowed networkparticipants, and new declarative entities and new declarative fielddefinitions are presented in a familiar manner to the blockchainadministrator since the various elements may be thought of as databasetables, columns, fields, and records, etc., despite the fact thatdatabase entries and database tables are not being created. Instead, theinformation is transacted onto the blockchain as an asset, whilepermitting the blockchain administrator to point and click their waythrough the entire process without any knowledge or requirement that theblockchain administrator understands how to transact to the underlyingblockchain or how to add and update or transfer assets on a blockchain.Therefore, practice of the disclosed embodiments drastically reduces thecomplexity on the part of a non-programmer user operating as ablockchain administrator.

And yet, for more sophisticated users having programming knowledge andunderstanding of blockchain, the same code may be written and generatedvia the APIs exposed by the blockchain services interface 190 andspecifically the blockchain metadata definition manager 196 provided bythe host organization.

FIG. 9A depicts another exemplary architecture 901 in accordance withdescribed embodiments.

As shown here, the blockchain administrator transacts the definedmetadata 910 onto the blockchain, which presumably will be accepted onceconsensus is reached, and a partner user next transacts a metadatacompliant transaction 915 onto the blockchain.

Further depicted here, is the materialized view 920 which permits a hostorganization user 925 to interact with the data transacted onto theblockchain via the metadata compliant transaction 915 from theaccessible cloud platforms 186 available via the host organization 110.

In computing, a materialized view 920 is a database object that containsthe results of a query. For example, the materialized view 920 may be alocal copy of data located remotely, or may be a subset of the rowsand/or columns of a table or join result, or may be a summary using anaggregate function.

The process of setting up a materialized view is sometimes calledmaterialization. On a sense, data materialization is a form of cachingthe results of a query, similar to other forms of precomputation, inwhich database administrators leverage materialized views forperformance reasons for purposes of optimization.

In any database management system following the relational model, a viewis a virtual table representing the result of a database query. Whenevera query or an update addresses an ordinary view's virtual table, theDBMS converts these into queries or updates against the underlying basetables.

Conversely, a materialized view takes a different approach insomuch thatthe query result is cached as a concrete (“materialized”) table that maybe updated separately from the original base tables. Such an approachpermits for more efficient access, at the cost of extra storage and ofsome data being potentially out-of-date. Materialized views find useespecially in data warehousing scenarios, where frequent queries of theactual base tables can be expensive.

In the example depicted here, the accessible cloud platforms 186generally utilize information stored within the databases 130 of thehost organization 110, however, where certain information is transactedto the blockchain and thus persisted at the blockchain, the materializedview permits the accessible cloud platforms 186 to interact with datastored by the blockchain via the materialized view 920. In such a way,both the host organization user 925 and the accessible cloud platformsmay interact with the blockchain data as if it were data stored withinthe databases 130 of the host organization simply by referencing thematerialized view.

Thus, it is in accordance with certain embodiments that any timeinformation is transacted to the blockchain, the smart contract triggersand executes a validation scheme for the data transacted onto theblockchain to ensure it is in compliance with the defined metadata 910and the smart contract additionally generates the materialized view 920so as to create a referenceable copy within the database 130 of the hostorganization 110, thus permitting the standard query interface of thehost organization to reference the information within the materializedview, which in turn corresponds to the information transacted onto theblockchain.

Thus, any entity which is declared and created for the blockchain, andfor which data is then written or transacted onto the blockchain, willautomatically have an equivalent entity (e.g., a table in a relationaldatabase) created within the database of the host organization 110within the materialized view, and as defined fields are created andaccepted onto the blockchain, those corresponding columns will then becreated within the host organization database system 130, and then whendata is transacted onto the blockchain, that corresponding entity tablewithin the database system 130 of the host organization will then bepopulated, within the materialized view, such that users and processesinteracting with the data from the side of the host organization, mayaccess the information from the materialized view.

Consequently, developers and users may interact with the declaredapplication which utilizes data and defined metadata persisted to theblockchain without any knowledge that they are actually utilizingblockchain and without any requirement that such users have anyknowledge of how to interact with the blockchain.

According to certain embodiments, a new table is not created within thedatabases 130 of the host organization and therefore, it is notnecessary to synchronize any data between the databases 130 of the hostorganization and the blockchain. Rather, a channel, pipeline, or view ofthe data persisted by the blockchain external from the host isrepresented via the materialized view at the databases 130 of the hostorganization, but the materialized view, although being referenceable,is not a copy that is synchronized back to the blockchain and does notallow updates or modifications. The materialized view is onlypermissible for read-only referencing from the databases 130 of the hostorganization. All modifications, updates, changes, etc., must betransacted onto the blockchain, and a refreshed materialized view willthen pull those changes from the blockchain and reflect thosemodifications at the database 130. While such an arrangement createsadditional overhead, the arrangement expressly negates the need tosynchronize data within the materialized view as such data is whollynon-authoritative.

Consequently, developers, programs, processes, and users may utilizestandard SQL queries to interact with the blockchain data, byreferencing the materialized view 920. For example, specifying SELECTfrom $Table_Name WHERE . . . when specifying the entity name as thetable name for the materialized view 920 will result in a database queryresult being returned by the host organization's database 130, despitethe fact that the authoritative copy of the data resides within theblockchain itself. While this structure does create some duplicativedata, and thus arguably results in wasted storage, the structure has thebenefit of greatly simplifying queries originating from any of theaccessible cloud platforms 186 which may utilize standard SQL withouthaving to identify the blockchain or construct more complex blockchaintransactions to retrieve the data, as the replication of the data to thematerialized view 920 is performed automatically by the smart contracttriggers. According to such embodiments, SQL commands which update,create, or delete records are not permitted for execution against thematerialized view, however, such SQL commands which update, create, ordelete records will be accepted and translated to the apex translationengine and Apex code interface 454 (shown at FIG. 4B) into nativeblockchain executable compliant code to perform the equivalent action ofan SQL update, create, or delete command, but as a blockchaintransaction which is then transacted against the blockchain, submittedfor consensus, and then accepted onto the blockchain assuming voting orconsensus is successful. Note also that a smart contract will execute tovalidate the transaction against the blockchain to enforce datacompliance with the defined metadata persisted at the blockchain.

For example, an SQL query submitted from a host organization user mayrequest an update for customer record John Doe for a specifiedapplication. Because such information is persisted at the blockchain,the SQL cannot be executed against the database systems 130 of the hostorganization. Moreover, the blockchain does not accept an SQL querywhich requests, “Please return all data for customer record John Doe.”The information on the blockchain is not human readable and also doesnot permit this kind of a query.

Consequently, the Apex code interface 454 will translate the SQL codereceived into native blockchain code to transact updated payload dataonto the blockchain for the customer record John Doe for the specifiedapplication. Note that when this occurs, the newest and latestinformation for customer record John Doe will now be reflected at theblockchain as the most up to date information and also at anymaterialized view of the same data, however, the old information forcustomer record John Doe remains within the blockchain as the blockchainrecords are immutable, thus creating an immutable audit trail which maybe referenced at any time. Thus, any party with access rights to suchdata, can look back at prior blocks of the blockchain to determine whatinformation was previously recorded for customer record John Doe, or inthe case that customer record John Doe is deleted, such a change will beagain reflected by the blockchain, but the old record itself remainsimmutably within the prior blocks of the blockchain, though theapplication will understand that such information is indicated as“deleted” and thus, the deleted record will not be referenced as livecurrent data, but it always remains available, as per the inherentdesign of the DLT blockchain technology.

In alternative embodiments, the Apex code interface 454 (shown at FIG.4B) is utilized to translate SQL database queries into a nativeblockchain protocol, permitting the translated SQL query to then beexecuted against the blockchain and generate a result set, which is thentranslated back into an SQL compliant format and returned responsive tothe SQL queries. In yet other embodiments, a smart contract engineperforms transactions against the blockchain to retrieve the definedentities and defined fields and translates those into the materializedview which is then stored within the host organization database system130, subsequent to which non-translated SQL queries may be executed toretrieve the blockchain data directly from the materialized view.

Because the application itself is declarative, as are the declaredentities and the declared defined fields for those entities, all dataconstructs are wholly customizable and may be tailored to the particularneeds of the business, subject only to consensus on the blockchain bythe network participants or the participating nodes which operate onthat particular blockchain.

FIG. 9B depicts another exemplary architecture 902 in accordance withdescribed embodiments.

As shown here, the defined metadata 910 has now been deployed to theblockchain as shown at element 911. Consequently, the declarativelydefined application, its entities, and field definitions may now beutilized by any authorized network participants. In many circumstances,the authorized network participants will be host organization users 925which have access to the various cloud services of the host organization110, and thus, the hosted application 920 is exposed to the customersfor use once deployed to the blockchain.

However, there is a need in certain circumstances for a partner user toaccess the software as an authorized network participant.Problematically, such a partner user having been authorized as a networkparticipant and thus, granted permissions to interact with the declaredapplication is not necessarily a customer of the host organization, andit may not be desirable to force them to become a subscribing customerof the host organization.

In order to deploy the declared application for use by non-customers ofthe host organization, there are two requirements in accordance withcertain embodiments. Firstly, the blockchain administrator must definethe permissible network participants, which may be done by defining anInternet Protocol (IP) address for those network participants inaccordance with certain embodiments. The IP address may correspond to ahost organization user, identified by IP, or the network participant maybe a non-customer of the host organization, again identified by IP. Insuch a way, the participating nodes on the blockchain which maypermissibly access the application and utilize the application may beidentified and may communicate with one another and share data with oneanother, assuming they are correctly identifiable by the IP addressesdefined by the blockchain administrator as added network participantsfor that particular application.

In certain embodiments, some or all of the added network participantsare non-users or non-subscribers of the host organization, and thus,they cannot authenticate with the host organization and thus cannotidentify themselves to the host organization via authenticationcredentials. It is therefore in accordance with such embodiments that anidentified network participant that is a non-customer of the hostorganization and wishing to utilize the application as a permissiblenetwork participant (defined by the blockchain administrator) yet anon-customer of the host organization, proceeds through a two-stepauthentication process. Firstly, they must provide their IP which mustcorrespond with an added network participant. The non-customer will thenbe presented with a challenge, responsive to which they need to return apublic key. The non-customer will have been given the public key inadvance by the blockchain administrator so that they may successfullytraverse the authentication challenge.

Once the non-customer provides both their IP and responds to thechallenge with the public key, then that public key is utilized everytime that non-customer attempts to utilize the declared application tonegotiate trust amongst the participating nodes on the blockchain.

Therefore, in accordance with a particular embodiment, a deployableinstall package 925 is transmitted to the partner user, in which thedeployable install package 925 runs software for the non-customer,allowing them to access the declared application.

According to a particular embodiment, the deployable install package 925is a generic software package which does not include functionality ofthe declared application, but rather, provides the non-customer partnerorganization to access the blockchain services interface of the hostorganization, such that the non-customer partner org may then transactwith the blockchain through the host organization through the use of thedeclared application to which that particular non-customer partner orgwas added as an authorized network participant.

According to such an embodiment, the generic deployable install package925, once installed and executed, will prompt the non-customer partnerorganization for a shared public key which will have been transmitted tothem separately by the blockchain administrator that added thenon-customer partner org as an authorized network participant for thatparticular declared application.

According to one embodiment, the deployable install package 925 issuesthe challenge based on the IP address of the non-customer partnerorganization which will have been configured by the blockchainadministrator as part of the metadata for the declared application whenadding the non-customer partner organization as an authorized networkparticipant.

Therefore, the identical generic deployable install package 925deployable install package 925 will operate differently based on whereit is executed. If the deployable install package 925 is executed from asystem having an IP address which is not in range or does not correspondto a configured IP for the authorized network participant, then thedeployable install package 925 when executed will simply indicate thatthe location associated with that IP address is not an authorizednetwork participant for any declared application.

If the identical deployable install package 925 is transmitted to adifferent person who is an authorized network participant for adifferent declared application, then the deployable install package 925,when executed, will prompt the user to enter the shared public key forthe different declared application, thus necessitating that both thecorrect shared public key be provided and that the deployable installpackage 925 be executed from an IP address which is already configuredas corresponding to an authorized network participant.

In such a way, the deployable install package 925 may be shared,distributed, or even published via the host organization's supportpages, without any non-authorized user being granted to the declaredapplication in question, so long as they cannot both spoof the IP andprovide the correct shared public key responsive to the challenge.

In certain embodiments, a user based authentication challenge mayadditionally be provided for a known user, without necessitating thatsuch a user or the non-customer partner organization associated with theuser subscribe to any services from the host organization.

While users of the declared application may utilize an API to interactwith the declared application and thus interact with the blockchainindirectly through the declared application, it is not necessary forthem to do so.

Rather, according to a particular embodiment, the deployable installpackage 925 provides a UI which is dynamically generated from themetadata persisted at the blockchain for the declared application towhich the executor of the deployable install package 925 is anauthorized network participant.

Therefore, it is not necessary for the deployable install package 925 tohave any application specific UIs. Rather, any GUI, API, or UI neededfor the declared application will be dynamically constructed by thedeployable install package 925 based on the associated metadata for thedeclared application.

In such a way, a non-customer partner organization which subscribes tono services whatsoever from the host organization may neverthelessutilize the blockchain services interface of the host organization(through the declared application) and utilize, interact with, and storedata on the blockchain which is made accessible through the hostorganization's blockchain services interface.

According to a particular embodiment, once the deployable installpackage 925 is executed a user may authenticate with the declaredapplication through the dynamically built UI which will associate thepublic key provided via by the user responsive to the initial challenge,and then proceed to generate GUI display screens based on the definedmetadata for the declared application, including any defined entitiesand any defined field definitions, via which the non-customer of thehost organization may enter data which is transacted onto theblockchain, update such data on the blockchain, and retrieve data fromthe blockchain, including data written to the blockchain by anotherorganization, but with whom the data associated with the declaredapplication is being shared, thus forming a common collection of data onthe blockchain for all authorized network participants which utilize thenew declared application.

Thus, the GUIs permit a blockchain administrator to define anapplication, define entities, define fields for each of those entities,and define permissible network participants, and then allow both hostorganization users and non-customer users to access the hosted softwarein which all the declarative metadata resides within a blockchain. Sucha blockchain may operate wholly outside of the host organization andeven outside of the control of the host organization, so long as theblockchain is accessible to the host organization. In alternativeembodiments, the declarative metadata resides within a modified DLTwhich is operated internally to the host organization and for which thehost organization is the single centralized trust authority.

Where the declarative metadata is hosted on an accessible blockchainoutside of the host organization, such as blockchains 999 shown here,the declared applications interact with the information on theblockchain by transacting with the blockchain to retrieve payload datafrom assets, to update assets, to create assets, etc.

Notably, however, the authoritative copy of the data is hosted externalto the host organization on the accessible blockchain(s) 999 and is notstored by any table within the databases 130 of the host organization.The materialized view discussed above is an optional feature, but evenwhen used, the information within the materialized view is not theauthoritative copy. Any transactions making modifications to the dataassociated with the application, must not only comply with the definedmetadata, but must also be updated at the blockchain 999. Where amodified DLT is operated internally, the data associated with theapplication must be updated within the modified DLT as the authoritativesource. Such application data is therefore persisted by an accessibleblockchain 999 as the ultimate authoritative copy of the data. Thus,even if the materialized view is deleted or corrupted, or becomes out ofsynch with the accessible blockchain, there is no affect upon theoperations of the declared application because the data for thatapplication and the metadata defining the structure and of such data isstored by the accessible blockchain 999.

FIG. 9C depicts another exemplary architecture 903 in accordance withdescribed embodiments.

As shown here, there is an event listener 960 within the blockchainservices interface 190 which accepts defined triggers 961 from theblockchain administrator and then operates to listen for specifiedevents which occur on the blockchain, responsive to which, an event istriggered or fired, shown here as the event triggered 962 so as to pushtransactions to the host organization or to initiate the execution of aflow or data processing flow, or any defined operations as specified bythe blockchain administrator. While this is a similar mechanism to thatwhich is utilized to trigger the smart contract execution automaticallyto enforce data compliance with the defined metadata, the event listenerand the defined triggers 961 permits the blockchain administrator todefine any executable operations to occur based on their own customizedcriteria, regardless of operations performed by the smart contractexecution.

Therefore, according to a particular embodiment, any time that anychange occurs within the accessible blockchain matching the definedtriggers 961 which is in the possession of the event listener 960, theevent listener will fire an event or events (event triggered 962) backinto the accessible cloud platforms 186, and the blockchainadministrator can write any kind of flow via code submitted via the APIto the blockchain services interface 190 or via the GUIs (e.g., via theintegration builder and associated GUIs) which permits the blockchainadministrator to create the flow, for example, create a smart contractto be executed or some other flow as defined by the blockchainadministrator, and that flow will then cause updates within theaccessible cloud platforms 186 as defined by the event triggered 962responsive to the change having occurred on the blockchain as monitoredby the event listener 960. According to one embodiment, a databasetransaction is performed within the databases 130 of the hostorganization or within the accessible cloud platform responsive to anevent triggered 962. In another embodiment, a GUI is triggered andpushed to a user client device presenting information based on thechange having occurred within the blockchain, as monitored by the eventlistener 960.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart of one embodiment of a process for consensus onread. This process can be implemented by the block consensus manager 191or similar component of the blockchain services interface 190. Theconsensus on read process can be triggered by a node 133 in theblockchain network seeking to access data in the blockchain to read thatdata where the data is protected by a permissions scheme or similarmechanism to control access to the data. This process is separate fromthe access control layer 162 in the blockchain services interface 190.If the data to be accessed is managed by a consensus on read process,then the consensus on read process must be satisfied to enable therequesting node to access the data from the blockchain which isprotected by encryption. A request to read data in the blockchain canhave any level of granularity where fields, records, metadata or similardata in the blockchain can be separately protected by the process.

When the data is first stored in the blockchain that is to haverestricted access for reads, the transaction is received by theblockchain service interface 190 (Block 1001). The blockchain consensusmanager 191 determines whether the transaction is to be confirmed to theblockchain according to the consensus protocol of the blockchainnetwork. Where the transaction is to be committed, the blockchainconsensus manager 191 generates a key to encrypt the data to be stored(Block 1003). The key is utilized to encrypt the data and the key willalso be recovered and utilized to decrypt the data to access it. The keyfor encryption is transformed into a set of shared secrets (Block 1005).Any secret sharing process or protocol can be utilized (e.g., Shamir'ssecret sharing algorithm) that can transform the key into a set ofshared secrets equal in number to the number of nodes that participatein consensus in the blockchain network. Similarly, any secret sharingalgorithm that has a desired threshold or configurable threshold can beselected to generate the shared secrets. Using such a shared secretalgorithm ensures that the data can only be accessed where a thresholdnumber of the shared secrets are provided by the other nodes in theblockchain network to reconstitute the key needed for decryption. Thethreshold can be fixed or configurable. The threshold can be any value,such as number equal to half or two-thirds of the number ofparticipating nodes.

As each shared secret is generated by the secret sharing algorithm, theshared secret designated for a particular node in the blockchain networkis encrypted using the public key of that node (Block 1007). Thus, onlythe associated node can decrypt the shared secret assigned to it andprovide it in the case of a granted read request as part of theconsensus on read process. These encrypted shared secrets are stored asmetadata for the associated transaction data upon consensus forcommitting the transaction to the blockchain (Block 1009).

Subsequently, after the protected data is stored in the blockchain, thenany node that seeks to service a request to access the protected data(Block 1011) must initiate a read request that is broadcast to the othernodes of the blockchain network. This read request identifies the datato be accessed and may include information about the node or entity thatis requesting to access the data (e.g., a set of credentials for theentity) (Block 1013). Each of the nodes then executes its consensus onread process and makes a determination whether the credentials or othercriteria for accessing the requested data are met. Each node thatdetermines that the criteria for reading the data are met, provides itsshared secret to the requesting node (Block 1015). The requesting nodecan collect the shared secrets and determine whether a defined thresholdnumber of the shared secrets have been provided (Block 1017). If thethreshold number of shared secrets is not returned, then the consensuson read process denies the read request and it cannot be completed(Block 1019). In some embodiments, the consensus on read process canhave a time limit or window within which the process must receive thethreshold number of shared secrets. If the threshold number of sharedsecrets are provided by the other nodes, then the requesting node canutilize the shared secret algorithm to transform the shared secrets intothe key used to encrypt the requested data and then the requested datacan be decrypted and accessed (Block 1021). After the data has beenaccessed then the requesting node can discard the key such that it willhave to be requested and reformed again on subsequent accesses.

When the encrypted data from the initial transaction is stored in theblockchain, the associated metadata including the shared secrets foreach node in the blockchain network is also stored in the blockchain.The metadata format can be defined and organized as detailed herein withrelation to the other disclosed embodiments. The metadata can identifythe shared secrets, owner of the transaction data, permissions orprivileges for access control associated with the transaction data,privacy information related to the transaction data, ownershipinformation for the transaction data and similar information. Themetadata can define these attributes of the transaction on an object,record, field or similar component level consistent with the format ofthe transaction data. Owners of transaction data can be users, nodes orsimilar entities that operate on and utilize the blockchain network.Further embodiments for access control processes and right to forgetprocesses are defined herein below that utilize this additional detailedmeta data along with the principles of the consensus on read process.

FIGS. 11A-11C are flowcharts related to a set of processes forimplementing a right to forget function within a blockchain serviceinterface 190. The right to forget function utilizes aspects of theconsensus on read process to enable an entity to designate data asprivate data and to have the blockchain ‘forget’ the data that isprivate upon request of the entity. This functionality can help enable ablockchain that implements the right to forget function to be compliantwith GDPR. The flowcharts of FIGS. 11A-11C describe three relatedaspects of the right to forget process, namely, an initial store ofprivate data also referred to as private information or PI information,a request for the data to be ‘forgotten,’ and an access request. Thesefunctions together provide the ability for a blockchain to ‘forget’ databy encrypting the private data and then deleting the encryption key uponrequest of the controlling entity to ensure the data cannot be accessedagain, and thus the right to forget function is effectively able todesignate data as ‘forgotten’ by the blockchain since it cannot besubsequently accessed even though the data is present in an encryptedform on the blockchain.

In FIG. 11A, the right to forget process is initiated by a nodereceiving a transaction to be stored to the blockchain at a blockchaininterface where the transaction includes a unique user identifier (UUID)for the entity that is associated with this data (Block 1101). Inaddition, the received transaction includes an indicator of the aspectsof the data that are to be designated private. The entirety of the dataor any aspect of the data at any level of granularity can be designatedprivate, e.g., an object, record, field of the data and/or metadata.Upon the transaction being determined to be committed to the blockchainbased on the consensus of the nodes in the blockchain, an object andmetadata format for the transaction data are determined that is utilizedto store the data on the blockchain where the object and metadata willinclude the owning entity UUID or similar identifier and a set ofindicators to identify the object, record, field or similar component ofthe data that is designated as private (Block 1103).

The blockchain consensus manager 191 or permissions manager generates akey to encrypt the data to be stored (Block 1105). The key utilized toencrypt the data and will be utilized to decrypt the data to access it.The key is then transformed into a set of shared secrets (Block 1107).Any secret sharing process or protocol can be utilized (e.g., Shamir'ssecret sharing algorithm) that can transform the key into a set ofshared secrets equal in number to the number of nodes that participatein consensus in the blockchain network. Similarly, a secret sharingalgorithm that has a desired threshold or configurable threshold can beselected to generate the shared secrets. Using such a shared secretalgorithm ensures that the data can only be accessed where a thresholdnumber of the shared secrets are provided by the other nodes in theblockchain network to reconstitute the key needed for decryption. Thethreshold can be fixed or configurable. The threshold can be any value,such as number equal to half or two-thirds of the number ofparticipating nodes.

As each shared secret is generated by the secret sharing algorithm, theshared secret designated for a particular node in the blockchain networkis encrypted using the public key of that node (Block 1109). Thus, onlythe associated node can decrypt the shared secret assigned to it andprovide it in the case of a granted read request as part of consensus onread. These encrypted shared secrets are stored as metadata for theassociated transaction data upon consensus for committing thetransaction to the blockchain (Block 1111).

FIG. 11B is a flowchart of the process for servicing a request to‘forget’ private data in the blockchain network. The permissions manager181 receives a request from an entity to forget specified dataassociated with a UUID (Block 1121). The permissions manager 181 orrelated component may authenticate the request to verify that sufficientcredentials have been presented to ensure that the requestor isauthorized to initiate a process to forget the identified data. Arequestor can present a security token, password, encryption key and/orsimilar credentials to verify authorization. If authenticated, then therequest is processed to add the UUID and/or an identifier for the datato be forgotten (Block 1123). The process can be configured to ‘forget’all data associated with an UUID, or a specific object, record or fieldidentified by the request. The UUID and any data identificationinformation can then be recorded to a list of ‘forgotten’ items. Ifthere are any keys or shared secrets specific to the UUID or identifiedinformation associated with the UUID, then the node can delete thislocal information (Block 1125). In addition, the node can also broadcastor similarly synchronize the list of forgotten UUIDs and/or informationwith other nodes in the blockchain.

FIG. 11C is a flowchart of the process for servicing a request to access‘forgotten’ private data in the blockchain network. Subsequently, afterthe private data is stored in the blockchain, then any node that seeksto service a request to access the protected data (Block 1131) makes aninitial check of the UUID of the requestor and/or identificationinformation of the requested data against the forgotten UUID/data list(Block 1133). If the UUID or requested data is listed as ‘forgotten’then the request to access this data is denied (Block 1135). If the UUIDor the requested data is not found on the list, then the permissionmanager 181 must initiate a read request that is broadcast to the othernodes of the blockchain network and identifies the data to be accessedand includes information about the node or entity that is requesting toaccess the data (i.e., the UUID and possibly a set of credentials forthe entity) (Block 1137). Each of the nodes then executes its consensusprocess for private information and makes a determination whether thecredentials or other criteria for accessing the requested data are met.Each node that determines that the criteria for reading the data aremet, provides its shared secret to the requesting node (Block 1139). Therequesting node then can collect the shared secrets and determinewhether a defined threshold number of the shared secrets have beenprovided (Block 1141). If the threshold number of shared secrets is notreturned, then the consensus process denies the read request and itcannot be completed (Block 1143). In some embodiments, the consensusprocess can have a time limit or window within which the process mustreceive the threshold number of shared secrets. If the threshold numberof shared secrets are provided by the other nodes, then the requestingnode can utilize the shared secret algorithm to transform the sharedsecrets into the key and then the requested data can be decrypted andaccessed (Block 1145). After the data has been accessed then therequesting node can discard the key such that it will have to berequested and reformed again on subsequent accesses.

FIG. 11D is a diagram of an example implementation of GDPR. In theexample of FIG. 11D, private information (PI information) can be storeddirectly in the blockchain or in a distributed storage. A node thatseeks to add PI information to the blockchain can interact with the RESTAPI to create/update the PI information. Metadata associated with the PIinformation, i.e., the PI metadata is defined via the Metadata API ofthe blockchain platform. In turn, the REST API manages the creation ofthe key for a record with the PI information and the storage of the PINinformation in the blockchain or in the distributed storage (asillustrated). Non PI data and a hash of the PI data can be stored in theblockchain via the REST API. The metadata can be stored in theblockchain via the Metadata API as separate metadata and/or as part of aconsent and GDPR model.

In the distributed storage case, the hash of the PI data is stored inthe blockchain while the actual PI data is stored off the blockchain.Deleting the PI information at the off-chain storage location leavesonly a hash of the PI information in the blockchain. The hash is aone-way function and cannot be used to retrieve the PI information whendeleted. In some cases, the hash can be stored with ciphertext tofurther protect it.

FIGS. 12A-12C are flowcharts related to a set of processes forimplementing an access control function within a blockchain serviceinterface 190. The access control functions utilize aspects of the readon consensus process to enable an entity to designate access controlsfor data to enable read and write permission for the blockchain. Theflowcharts of FIGS. 12A-12C describe three related aspects of accesscontrols, namely, an initial store of data with a set of permissions, arequest for writing to the data, and a read request for the data. Thesefunctions together provide the ability for a blockchain to implementaccess controls for data by encrypting the data and then controllingwrites to the data using smart contracts while controlling reads of thedata using consensus on read. These access control functions areapplicable to both permissioned (i.e., private) and public blockchainsand are separate from the access control layers associated withpermissioned blockchains.

In FIG. 12A, the access controls process is initiated by a nodereceiving a transaction to be stored to the blockchain at a blockchaininterface where the transaction includes a unique user identifier (UUID)for the entity that is associated with this data along with anindication of the ownerships and access privileges (i.e., permissions)for the data (Block 1201). In addition, the received transactionincludes an indicator of the aspects of the data that are to havedefined permissions. The entirety of the data or any aspect of the dataat any level of granularity can have defined permissions, e.g., anobject, record, field of the data and/or metadata. Upon the transactionbeing determined to be committed to the blockchain based on theconsensus of the nodes in the blockchain, an object and metadata formatfor the transaction data are determined that is utilized to store thedata on the blockchain where the object and metadata will include theowning entity UUID or similar identifier and a set of permissions toidentify the object, record, field or similar component of the data thatis designated as private (Block 1203).

The blockchain consensus manager 191 or permissions manager 181generates a key to encrypt the data to be stored (Block 1205). The keyutilized to encrypt the data and that will also be utilized to decryptthe data to access it, is then transformed into a set of shared secrets(Block 1207). Any secret sharing process or protocol can be utilized(e.g., Shamir's secret sharing algorithm) that can transform the keyinto a set of share secrets equal in number to the number of designatedowner nodes in the blockchain network. Similarly, a secret sharingalgorithm that has a desired threshold or configurable threshold can beselected to generate the shared secrets. Using such a shared secretalgorithm ensures that the data can only be accessed where a thresholdnumber of the shared secrets are provided by the owner nodes in theblockchain network to reconstitute the key needed for decryption.

As each shared secret is generated by the secret sharing algorithm, theshared secret designated for a particular owner node in the blockchainnetwork is encrypted using the public key of that node (Block 1209).Thus, only the associated node can decrypt the shared secret assigned toit and provide it in the case of a granted read request as part ofconsensus on read. These encrypted shared secrets are stored as metadatafor the associated transaction data upon consensus for committing thetransaction to the blockchain along with the access privileges for thedata (Block 1211).

FIG. 12B is a flowchart of the process for servicing a request to writedata in the blockchain network. The permissions manager 181 receives arequest from an entity to write specified data associated with a UUIDand access control privileges (Block 1221). The permissions manager 181or related component may authenticate the request to verify thatsufficient credentials have been presented to ensure that the requestoris authorized to initiate a write process to change the identified data.A requestor can present a security token, password, encryption keyand/or similar credentials to verify authorization. If authenticated,then the request is processed to determine a smart contract tied to theUUID and/or an identifier for the data to written to (Block 1223). Asmart contract can set forth and manage the process for data to be addedto the blockchain that serves as a write of the data such that the dataadded to the blockchain serves to replace prior data in the blockchainthough that data itself cannot be modified. The smart contract for aUUID or data associated with an UUID, or a specific object, record orfield identified by the request is looked up in the blockchain and themetadata associated with the data to be written is examined to determineif the privileges allow for writes (Block 1225). If the metadata andgoverning smart contract do not permit a write of the data by therequestor then the process denies the write and the associatedtransaction is not committed or the portion related to the specific datamanaged by the access controls is not committed (Block 1227). If thesmart contract and the privileges associated with the identified dataand the UUID of the requestor do permit a write, then the transactionand/or the portion of the data in the transaction identified to bewritten can be committed to the blockchain and will reference the datathat is written to such that it will function to replace it.

FIG. 12C is a flowchart of the process for servicing a request to readdata with access control privileges in the blockchain network. After theaccess controlled data is stored in the blockchain, any node that seeksto service a request to access the data (Block 1131) makes an initialcheck of the permissions for the requestor and/or identificationinformation of the requested data to examine the permissions in theassociated metadata (Block 1233). If the permissions indicate that therequestor does not have permission, then the request to access this datais denied (Block 1235). If the UUID and the metadata of the requesteddata does not prohibit access, then the permission manager 181 mustinitiate a read request that is broadcast to the other nodes indicatedas owners of the data in the blockchain network and identifies the datato be accessed and includes information about the node or entity that isrequesting to access the data (i.e., the UUID and possibly a set ofcredentials for the entity) (Block 1237). Each of the nodes thenexecutes its consensus process for access controlled data and makes adetermination whether the credentials or other criteria for accessingthe requested data are met. Each node that determines that the criteriafor reading the data are met, provides its shared secret to therequesting node (Block 1239). The requesting node then can collect theshared secrets and determine whether a defined threshold number of theshared secrets have been provided (Block 1241). If the threshold numberof shared secrets is not returned, then the consensus process denies theread request and it cannot be completed (Block 1243). In someembodiments, the consensus process can have a time limit or windowwithin which the process must receive the threshold number of sharedsecrets. If the threshold number of shared secrets are provided by theother nodes, then the requesting node can utilize the shared secretalgorithm to transform the shared secrets into the key and then therequested data can be decrypted and accessed (Block 1245). The thresholdcan be fixed or configurable. The threshold can be any value, such asnumber equal to half or two-thirds of the number of participating nodes.After the data has been accessed then the requesting node can discardthe key such that it will have to be requested and reformed again onsubsequent accesses.

FIG. 12D is a diagram for an example use case for access control. Theexample use case can be implemented in conjunction with the accesscontrol and consensus on read processed described herein. The use caseenables the definition of permission rules also referred to as policies.In the context of a distributed enterprise platform, both role based andattribute based control can be implemented. Role based control definesthe access rights of a user and the attribute based control extendsaccess rights to attributes such as properties of a resource, entitiesand the execution environment. The access controls can be divided intoentity level and record level access in combination with blockchain. Theentity level access is similar to a object or field level control thatallows a set of defined users or partners to access an entity in ablockchain as well as associated fields. A record level access can besimilar to sharing settings in other platforms that allow access to therecord based on permission defined by the record owner.

In this example use case, the access controls can be defined withrelation to participants, records, record policies, and recordauthorization. A participant in this use case is represented withparticipant metadata in the blockchain, which can be a defined set ofusers or entities that have ownership or access privileges overspecified data in the blockchain. A record in this context can be ametadata entity that contains the identifier for an entity that extendsthe record (e.g., a customer entity includes an identifier for a recordentity. Participants are associated in this example with the recordentity. Access is defined at the record level to manage entity access.

In this use case a record policy can be a junction object that keeps therecord and participant access policy. Access levels can be defined withtwo types, a permission level (e.g., read, write, and read/write) and aconsensus level (e.g., where there are multiple owners) such as one ormajority. A record authorization can track transactions about individualauthorization by each record owner in relation to the record policy.

With regard to FIG. 12D, the example use case for access control isdescribed with relation to an access request from a third party (i.e., anon owner). For sake of the example, a third party could be a collegeasking to review transcripts of a student (i.e., the owner) from anotherinstitution (e.g., a high school) that manages the transcripts using theblockchain as described herein. The process starts with the third part(college) asking to access the transcripts. An access request handlerqueries the blockchain to determine permission for access. If access isalready granted, then a verification can be returned.

Where access has not yet been granted, then the access request handlercan send access requests to the owners. When all of the owners (or amajority) approve the access, then the policy/permissions for thetranscripts are updated in the blockchain. The access request of thethird party can then be accepted to grant access to the requested record(e.g., the transcripts) in the blockchain. If access is not approved bythe owners, then the access is blocked.

FIG. 13 depicts a flow diagram illustrating a method 1200 forimplementing efficient storage and validation of data and metadatawithin a blockchain using Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) inconjunction with a cloud based computing environment such as a databasesystem implementation supported by a processor and a memory to executesuch functionality to provide cloud based on-demand functionality tousers, customers, and subscribers.

Method 1300, as well as the other processes described herein, may beperformed by processing logic that may include hardware (e.g.,circuitry, dedicated logic, programmable logic, microcode, etc.),software (e.g., instructions run on a processing device) to performvarious operations such as operating, defining, declaring, associating,writing, receiving, retrieving, adding, transacting, training,distributing, processing, transmitting, analyzing, triggering, pushing,recommending, parsing, persisting, exposing, loading, generating,storing, maintaining, creating, returning, presenting, interfacing,communicating, querying, providing, determining, displaying, updating,sending, etc., in pursuance of the systems and methods as describedherein. For example, the hosted computing environment 111, theblockchain services interface 1350, and its database system 130 asdepicted at FIG. 1A, et seq., and other systems and components asdescribed herein may implement the described methodologies. Some of theblocks and/or operations listed below are optional in accordance withcertain embodiments. The numbering of the blocks presented is for thesake of clarity and is not intended to prescribe an order of operationsin which the various blocks must occur.

With reference to the method 1300 depicted at FIG. 13, at block 1305,processing logic operates a blockchain interface to a blockchain onbehalf of a plurality of tenants of the host organization, in which eachone of the plurality of tenants operate as a participating node withaccess to the blockchain.

At block 1310, processing logic receives a transaction for theblockchain requesting the host organization to update a data recordpersistently stored on the blockchain, the transaction specifyingupdated values for one or more of a plurality of data elements of thedata record.

At block 1315, processing logic executes a smart contract to validatethe updated values specified by the transaction before permitting thetransaction to be added to the blockchain to update the data record onthe blockchain with the updated values.

At block 1320, processing logic writes the updated values for the datarecord to the blockchain by adding the transaction to a new block on theblockchain pursuant to successful validation of the updated data valuesby the smart contract.

According to another embodiment, method 1300 further includes:performing a data merge operation for the data record persistentlystored on the blockchain, in which the data merge operation includes:retrieving the data record in its entirety from the blockchain toretrieve all of the plurality of data elements of the data record;merging the validated updated values as specified by the transaction forthe blockchain into the plurality of data elements of the data record toform a complete data record having the validated updated values embodiedtherein; in which writing the updated values for the data record to theblockchain by adding the transaction to a new block on the blockchainincludes writing the complete data record having the validated updatedvalues embodied therein to the new block of the blockchain; in which thecomplete data record deprecates all prior versions of the data recordstored on the blockchain and does not reference any prior version of thedata record stored on the blockchain.

For example, the data merge operation permits data of a data record tobe retrieved from a single block of the blockchain, regardless of howmany updates the data record has previously undergone. While some datais thus duplicated (e.g., the non-updated values will now be present ina prior block and also the new block to which the complete record havingbeen merged is written). Notwithstanding the data-redundancy, dataretrieval is made more efficient and faster.

According to another embodiment of method 1300, writing the updatedvalues for the data record to the blockchain by adding the transactionto a new block on the blockchain includes: writing the updated valuesinto the new block on the blockchain with a reference to a prior blockon the blockchain; in which retrieval of a complete and current versionof the data record requires any data elements of the stored data recordwhich are not modified by the updated values to be retrieved from theprior block on the blockchain based on the reference and retrieval ofthe updated values from the new block on the blockchain.

For example, rather than performing a data merge operation whichimproves retrieval but results in redundancy of stored data, the storeddata record is instead represented by multiple blocks on the blockchain,with newer updated information being stored within a new block of theblockchain along with a reference pointer to a prior location on theblockchain from which the non-updated values of the stored data recordmay be retrieved.

According to another embodiment, method 1300 further includes:performing a data merge operation and a data serialization for the datarecord persistently stored on the blockchain; in which the data mergeoperation includes (i) retrieving the data record in its entirety fromthe blockchain and (ii) merging the updated values into the retrieveddata record form a complete data record having the updated valuesembodied therein; in which the data serialization operation includesconverting the complete data record formed by the data merge operationand having the updated values embodied therein into a serialized bytestream; and in which writing the updated values for the data record tothe blockchain by adding the transaction to the new block on theblockchain includes writing the serialized byte stream to the new blockon the blockchain.

For example, the updated record resulting from the data merge operationmay be serialized (e.g., via a protobuf generator or other serializationmeans) to form a smaller and more efficient record to be stored to theblockchain, and potentially providing a layer of data security throughabstraction resulting from the serialization and optionally permittingfurther encryption of the serialized updated record where a high degreeof data security is warranted.

According to another embodiment, method 1300 further includes: executinga protobuf generator to convert the complete data record formed by thedata merge operation and having the updated values embodied therein intothe serialized byte stream.

According to another embodiment of method 1300, the serialized bytestream forms at least one of: a binary format serialized byte stream; aJavaScript Object Notation (JSON) compatible format serialized bytestream; an plain text or American Standard Code for InformationInterchange (ASCII) compatible format serialized byte stream; anencrypted serialized byte stream; a protobuffed serialized byte stream;and a hexadecimal format serialized byte stream.

For example, the data serialization operation may produce any of avariety of formats depending upon the needs of the applicationdeveloper's needs with respect to security and ease of interoperabilityof the serialized data.

According to another embodiment, method 1300 further includes: receivinga first transaction for the blockchain requesting the host organizationto store the data record on the blockchain as a new stored data record,in which the new stored data record includes a plurality of dataelements embedded therein as specified by the first transaction; and inwhich receiving the transaction for the blockchain requesting the hostorganization to update the data record persistently stored on theblockchain includes receiving a second transaction for the blockchain,in which the second transaction specifies the updated values for the newstored data record previously transacted onto the blockchain.

For example, an original and new record to be stored to the blockchainis still subjected to data validation, however, there is no need toupdate an original and new data record. Subsequently, updates to theoriginal data record may be applied and stored on the blockchain subjectto data validation.

According to another embodiment, method 1300 further includes: receivinga first transaction for the blockchain requesting the host organizationto store metadata on the blockchain, the metadata defining a validformat for the data record and the plurality of data elements stored bythe data record; in which receiving the transaction for the blockchainrequesting the host organization to update the data record persistentlystored on the blockchain includes receiving a second transaction for theblockchain, in which the second transaction specifies the updated valuesfor the stored data record as previously transacted onto the blockchain;and in which executing the smart contract to validate the updated valuesspecified by the transaction includes retrieving the metadata from theblockchain stored pursuant to the first transaction and validating theupdated values using the retrieved metadata.

For example, the metadata defining the appropriate format for the recordmay be permissibly stored onto the blockchain and then retrieved for useby the executed smart contract in performing the data validation.Additionally, it is further permissible to protobuf or serialize themetadata stored to the blockchain if desired.

According to another embodiment, method 1300 further includes: rejectingthe transaction and prohibiting the updated values from being written tothe data record persistently stored to the blockchain upon a failedvalidation of the updated values specified by the transaction.

According to another embodiment, method 1300 further includes:determining a transaction type based on the transaction received;identifying the smart contract to be executed based on the determinedtransaction type; and in which executing the smart contract to validatethe updated values includes executing the smart contract identifiedbased on the transaction type.

For example, transactions with the blockchain may be “typed” such thatdifferent transactions correspond to different transaction types.According to such an embodiment, based on the transaction type, a smartcontract may be identified or looked up according to the determinedtransaction type. Subsequently, execution of the smart contract is basedon the determined transaction type and smart contract identification. Incertain embodiments, the transaction type is expressly specified withthe transaction whereas in other embodiments the transaction type isderived based on the contents of the transaction.

According to another embodiment of method 1300, in which executing thesmart contract to validate the updated values specified by thetransaction includes: retrieving metadata defining a valid format forthe data record persistently stored on the blockchain; validating theupdated values specified by the transaction using the metadataretrieved; and issuing a successful validation result or a failedvalidation result based on the validation, in which the transaction isprohibited from being added to the blockchain pursuant to the failedvalidation result and in which the transaction is permitted to be addedto the blockchain pursuant to the successful validation result.

For example, execution of the smart contract acts as a quality controland may be utilized to ensure that corrupted, malicious, or malformeddata is not transacted onto the blockchain.

According to another embodiment of method 1300, the data record isstored on the blockchain within an asset's payload portion via a CREATEasset command term for the blockchain; and in which the data record isassociated with a transaction type for stored data records which are tobe stored in their entirety with any update within a new block of theblockchain deprecating any prior version of the data record.

According to another embodiment of method 1300, the data record isstored on the blockchain within an asset's payload portion via a CREATEasset command term for the blockchain; and in which the data record isassociated with a transaction type for stored data records which are tobe stored incrementally; in which any update to the stored data recordwrites the updated values specified by the transaction to a new block onthe blockchain with a reference to a prior block on the blockchainwithin which the stored data record was previously stored; and in whichretrieval of the stored data record from the blockchain requiresretrieval of the updated values from the new block on the blockchain andretrieval of any remaining values not modified by the updated valuesfrom the prior block on the blockchain.

For example, storing records on the blockchain may leverage the CREATEasset command term to transact new assets onto the blockchain, withinwhich the stored data record is then encoded or embodied, for instance,within a payload portion of the new asset. Subsequent updates to thestored data record may then update the asset using the UPDATE assetcommand function or generate an entirely new asset for a complete recordwith updated information generated via the data merge operationdiscussed above, in which case either the UPDATE asset command functionmay be utilized in which case the new version is created in its entiretybut with a reference to a prior deprecated version of the stored datarecord or the CREATE asset command term may be utilized to simply removeall reference to any prior version and write the complete updated recordto the blockchain as a new asset, depending on the blockchain protocoland the considerations of the application developer.

According to another embodiment, method 1300 further includes: receivinga second transaction for the blockchain requesting the host organizationto store a related entity, the related entity to be persistently storedto the blockchain via a second asset separate and distinct from a firstasset within which the stored data record is persistently stored on theblockchain; transacting with the blockchain via a CREATE assettransaction to add the second asset to the blockchain and storing therelated entity within a payload portion of the second asset; andrelating the related entity stored within the second asset to the storeddata record within the first asset via a universally unique identifier(UUID) assigned to the related entity.

According to another embodiment, method 1300 further includes:retrieving the stored data record from the blockchain; updating thestored data record to include the UUID assigned to the related entity;and writing the updated stored data record having the UUID includedtherein to the blockchain.

According to another embodiment of method 1300, the stored data recordincludes a student record having embedded therein via the plurality ofdata elements at least a student first name, a student last name, and astudent ID; in which the related entity includes a student transcript;relating the related entity stored within the second asset to the storeddata record within the first asset via a universally unique identifier(UUID) assigned to the related entity includes linking the studenttranscript with the student record via the UUID assigned to the studenttranscript; in which updating the stored data record to include the UUIDincludes updating the student record to include the UUID linking thestudent record with the student transcript; and in which writing theupdated stored data record having the UUID included therein to theblockchain includes writing the student record to the blockchain havingembedded therein the student first name, the student last name, thestudent ID and the UUID assigned to the student transcript stored on theblockchain via a separate and distinct second asset.

For example, storage of other information which is not part of one ofthe data elements of the stored data record may nevertheless be storedonto the blockchain via the related entity functionality in which therelated entity (such as a student transcript or a student medicalrecord, etc.) is written to the blockchain as metadata stored within aseparate asset from the stored data record and then linked with thestored data record by including a UUID assigned automatically to therelated entity in the plurality of data elements of the stored datarecord, thus requiring an update to the stored data record to effectuatethe link.

According to another embodiment of method 1300, metadata defining avalid format for the data record is stored on the blockchain within anasset's payload portion via a CREATE asset command term for theblockchain; and in which the metadata is associated with a transactiontype for stored metadata.

For example, storage of metadata may also leverage the CREATE assetcommand term, although it is different in terms of its transaction typeand also stored contents.

According to another embodiment of method 1300, the added transaction issubjected to a consensus protocol by the participating nodes of theblockchain prior to the added transaction being accepted as part of aprimary chain of the blockchain by the participating nodes of theblockchain.

For example, transacting on the blockchain retains consensus schemesrequired for that blockchain so as to ensure transaction validity.

According to another embodiment of method 1300, the metadata isaccessible only to one of the plurality of tenants of the hostorganization having defined and transacted the metadata onto theblockchain; or in which alternatively the metadata is accessible all ofthe plurality of tenants operating as one of the participating nodeswith access to the blockchain regardless of which one of the pluralityof tenants defined and transacted the metadata onto the blockchain.

For example, it is possible to define and store metadata to theblockchain with the intention that it remain domain-specific to theparticular tenant organization that created the metadata for theirspecific application. However, there may be instances in which anadministrator for the host organization wishes to createnon-domain-specific metadata which is then made accessible to any tenantorganization operating as a participating node within the blockchain orin certain instances, a tenant organization may wish to create suchmetadata for a particular application which is then made accessible toother tenant organizations.

According to another embodiment of method 1300, modification of themetadata transacted onto the blockchain is under the exclusive controlof the one of the plurality of tenants having transacted the metadataonto the blockchain for persistent storage via the blockchain; in whicha new consensus is required to write changes to the metadata onto theblockchain when the metadata is accessible to any of the plurality oftenants operating as one of the participating nodes with access to theblockchain; and in which no consensus is required to write changes tothe metadata onto the blockchain when the metadata is accessible forexclusive use by only the one of the plurality of tenants havingoriginally transacted the metadata onto the blockchain.

For example, where the metadata is accessible to other tenantorganizations, then modifications are subjected to consensus controls,however, if the metadata is domain specific and limited to the exclusiveuse by the tenant organization having created it and stored it on theblockchain originally, then it is not necessary to enforce consensus ofsuch modifications, though optionally, the blockchain protocol mayrequire the consensus operation regardless.

According to another embodiment of method 1300, the blockchain protocolfor the blockchain is defined by the host organization and further inwhich the host organization permits access to the blockchain for theplurality of tenants of the host organization operating as participatingnodes on the blockchain; or alternatively in which the blockchainprotocol for the blockchain is defined by a third party blockchainprovider other than the host organization and further in which the hostorganization also operates as a participating node on the blockchain viawhich the host organization has access to the blockchain.

For example, certain blockchains are implemented by the hostorganization itself, in which the host organization defines theblockchain protocol and facilitates access to the blockchain on behalfof its tenant organizations who then operate as participating nodes onthe host org provided blockchain, optionally with non-tenant orgs alsopermitted as participating nodes at the discretion of the hostorganization. However, there are also existing blockchainimplementations which are not defined by or implemented by the hostorganization and thus, operate external from the host organization withsuch blockchain protocols having been defined by a third party or anoutside consortium or standards body. In such an event, the hostorganization may nevertheless facilitate access to the blockchain byoperating as a participating node itself on the blockchain, via whichthe host organization may then have access to the functions of theblockchain. In such an event, permissions and access rights may begranted by the tenant orgs to the host organization to act on theirbehalf as a proxy, or the host organization may implement virtualparticipating nodes on the blockchain within which each tenant org mayoperate as a participating node, thus providing a 1:1 correspondencebetween the tenant orgs and the virtual nodes implemented by the hostorganization or the host organization may execute the associated smartcontract and perform validation of stored data record updatetransactions for the blockchain, but then permit the tenantorganization's own participating node to self-authenticate with and thenactually transact with the blockchain, for instance, via the hostorganization provided API. In such a way, tenant orgs may addtransactions to the blockchain (subject to consensus) regardless ofwhich the blockchain is implemented by the host organization or a thirdparty.

According to another embodiment, method 1300 further includes:maintaining an index for a plurality of data records persistently storedto the blockchain; in which the index defines at least a location foreach of the plurality of data records persistently stored to theblockchain, the location defining one addressable block of theblockchain from which to retrieve a respective data record persistentlystored to the blockchain.

According to another embodiment of method 1300, the index includes aMerkle Tree compatible index; and in which the index is persistentlystored at the host organization or persistently stored to the blockchainor persistently stored at both the host organization and the blockchain.

For example, such an index may be utilized to improve retrieval speeds,with the index being maintained within one or both of the hostorganization and the blockchain. While duplicative data is persistentlystored, the retrieval time for fetching records indexed is greatlyreduced due to the index defining a specific location of the data withinthe blockchain, such as at which block such data is stored.

According to another embodiment of method 1300, the index defines foreach of the plurality of data records persistently stored to theblockchain, both (i) the location for each of the plurality of recordspersistently stored to the blockchain and (ii) a copy of any contents ofthe plurality of record records persistently stored to the blockchain;and in which maintaining the index includes writing the updated valuesfor the data record to the index when the updated values for the datarecord are written to the blockchain pursuant to successful validationof the updated values.

According to another embodiment, method 1300 further includes: receivinga second transaction requesting retrieval, from the blockchain, of theupdated data record previously written to the blockchain; retrieving theupdated data record from the index without interacting with theblockchain; and returning the updated data record retrieved from theindex responsive to the second transaction requesting the retrieval.

For example, in addition to indexing location information, contents ofthe records may also be retrieved, wholly negating the need to transactwith the blockchain for a read-only retrieval request which has beenpreviously indexed. Where the contents of such stored records areindexed in this way retrieval speed will be increased dramatically overconventional blockchain retrieval transactions, especially when theindex is persisted and maintained at the host organization, thuseliminating any interaction with the blockchain whatsoever for aread-only retrieval.

According to another embodiment of method 1300, nodes and leafs of theindex are retrievable via full or partial addresses as defined by anaddressing structure for the index; in which the method further includesmaintaining the addressing structure for the index, in which theaddressing structure includes at least: a first portion of theaddressing structure defining an application namespace; a second portionof the addressing structure defining an entity type identifier; and athird portion of the addressing structure defining a name for an entityor a data record stored by the blockchain and indexed by the index.

For example, any node or leaf or sub-tree 654 below a node may bedirectly referenced and retrieved from the index without having to walk,traverse, or search the index when the address is known, thus furtherincreasing retrieval speeds.

According to another embodiment of method 1300, referencing the indexwith a fully qualified address will return contents of leaf from theindex, the contents of the leaf; and in which referencing the index witha partial address will return a sub-tree beneath a node of the indexmatching the partial address, in which the sub-tree includes multipleleafs of the index structured below the node of the index matching thepartial address.

For example, contents of any leaf may be returned by a call to the indexwith the full addresses, specifying the application namespace, theentity type identifier and the name of the entity or record, however,use of a partial address may be extremely beneficial as it permits thereturn of all matching records within a sub-tree beneath a node. Forexample, if desired, an application which stores student records mayreturn all metadata for the application by specifying a partial addresswith the application namespace and the entity type identifier, butlacking specification of any specific entity name. Similarly, allstudent records may be returned using a partial address specifying theapplication namespace code and specifying the entity type identifier forthe student data records, but lacking specification of any specificentity name.

According to another embodiment, method 1300 further includes: receivingmultiple subsequent transactions specifying additional updated valuesfor one or more of a plurality of data elements of the data recordpersistently stored to the blockchain; buffering the multiple subsequenttransactions specifying the additional updated values to the index byupdating the index with each of the multiple subsequent transactionsupon receipt without writing corresponding updates to the blockchain;and incrementally updating the data record persistently stored to theblockchain by periodically adding a single incremental updatetransaction to the blockchain representing all of the additional updatedvalues received via the multiple subsequent transactions.

For example, certain applications, such as a data stream from a group ofIoT devices (Information of Things) results in updates with too high offrequency of changes and updates due to the endless stream of data to bepractical for storage within a blockchain. However, buffering suchinformation via the index and then periodically flushing such data tothe blockchain via a single incremental update transaction overcomesthis problem, thus permitting such high-frequency data record updates tonevertheless be transacted to and stored on the blockchain.

According to a particular embodiment, there is non-transitory computerreadable storage media having instructions stored thereon that, whenexecuted by a system of a host organization having at least a processorand a memory therein, the instructions cause the system to perform thefollowing operations: operating a blockchain interface to a blockchainon behalf of a plurality of tenants of the host organization, in whicheach one of the plurality of tenants operate as a participating nodewith access to the blockchain; receiving a transaction for theblockchain requesting the host organization to update a data recordpersistently stored on the blockchain, the transaction specifyingupdated values for one or more of a plurality of data elements of thedata record; executing a smart contract to validate the updated valuesspecified by the transaction before permitting the transaction to beadded to the blockchain to update the data record on the blockchain withthe updated values; and writing the updated values for the data recordto the blockchain by adding the transaction to a new block on theblockchain pursuant to successful validation of the updated data valuesby the smart contract.

FIG. 14 shows a diagrammatic representation of a system 1401 withinwhich embodiments may operate, be installed, integrated, or configured.In accordance with one embodiment, there is a system 1401 having atleast a processor 1490 and a memory 1495 therein to execute implementingapplication code for the methodologies as described herein. Such asystem 1401 may communicatively interface with and cooperatively executewith the benefit of a hosted computing environment, such as a hostorganization, a multi-tenant environment, an on-demand service provider,a cloud based service provider, a client-server environment, etc.

According to the depicted embodiment, system 1401, which may operatewithin a host organization, includes the processor 1490 and the memory1495 to execute instructions at the system 1401. According to such anembodiment, the processor 1490 is to execute a blockchain servicesinterface 1465 on behalf of on behalf of a plurality of tenants 1498 ofthe host organization, in which each one of the plurality of tenants1498 operate as a participating node with access to the blockchain 1499.Internal to the blockchain services interface 1465, there is depictedthe blockchain metadata definition manager 1492, depicted here aswriting metadata onto the blockchain via its access to the blockchain1499 as provided by the blockchain services interface 1465.

A receive interface 1426 of the system 1401 is to receive a transaction1441 for the blockchain requesting the host organization to update adata record persistently stored on the blockchain, in which thetransaction specifies updated values for one or more of a plurality ofdata elements of the data record. Such a system further includes a smartcontract 1439 executable via the processor 1490 and the smart contractexecutor and validator 1443 via which to validate the updated valuesspecified by the transaction 1441 before permitting the transaction tobe added to the blockchain to update the data record on the blockchainwith the updated values. A blockchain services interface 1465 is furtherprovided via which to the system 1401 is to write the updated values forthe data record to the blockchain by adding the transaction 1441 to anew block on the blockchain pursuant to successful validation of theupdated data values by the smart contract 1439.

A blockchain protocol 1486 for the blockchain defines a group offunctions for the blockchain (e.g., as provided by the blockchainimplementation manager 1485), in which the group of base functions areaccessible to any participating node 1498 of the blockchain. The system1401 may further persist metadata 1489 onto the blockchain; in which thereceive interface 1426 is to further receive a transaction 1441requesting such metadata 1489 to be stored to the blockchain, sometimesfor use with validating updated values of a received transaction 1441.According to such a system 1401, the blockchain services interface 1465is further to add the transaction 1441 to a new block on the blockchainpursuant to successful validation by the smart contract 1439.

According to such an embodiment of the system 1401, the receiveinterface 1426 may pass the transaction data contents of the transaction1441 to be stored within in index persisted by the database system(s)1446.

According to such an embodiment of the system 1401, a GUI 1440 may bepushed to the user devices 1497 via which the user devices or admincomputing devices may interact with the blockchain metadata definitionmanager 1492.

According to another embodiment of the system 1401, the blockchainservices interface 1465 is to interact with and provide access to theblockchain 1499.

According to another embodiment of the system 1401, the receiveinterface 1426 communicates with a user client device 1497 remote fromthe system and communicatively links the user device with the system viaa public Internet. According to such an embodiment, the system operatesat a host organization as a cloud based service provider to the userdevice 1499; in which the cloud based service provider hosts a receiveinterface 1426 exposed to the user client device via the publicInternet, and further in which the receive interface (or web applicationinterface 1445) receives inputs from the user device as a request forservices from the cloud based service provider.

Bus 1416 interfaces the various components of the system 1401 amongsteach other, with any other peripheral(s) of the system 1401, and withexternal components such as external network elements, other machines,client devices, cloud computing services, etc. Communications mayfurther include communicating with external devices via a networkinterface over a LAN, WAN, or the public Internet while theauthenticator 1450 authenticates user devices and users seeking toaccess data from the host organization exposed by the system 1401.

FIG. 15A depicts another exemplary architecture 1501 in accordance withdescribed embodiments.

In particular, there is now depicted a metadata rules user 1550utilizing the computing device 1599 and specifically utilizing thegraphical user interface (GUI) 1510 to configure metadata rules to beapplied to transactions occurring on the blockchain.

As shown here, there is an application selection GUI via which themetadata rules user 1550 may first select one or more applications towhich a new metadata rule is to be applied, and then at the bottom,there is a rule creation GUI via which the metadata rules user 1550 maycreate a new rule to be deployed to the blockchain.

As shown here, the Rule Creation GUI provides the metadata rules user1550 with a condition builder interface, via which the user may selectthrough the GUI, states which must be present, and an operator, such as“is” or “not” or “includes” or “does not include” or “is equal to” or“is greater than” or “is less than” and so forth, and then thedescriptor, such as “pending change” for a rule that is to be appliedwhen the “State is pending change” or when the “state is known error,”or some other new criteria to be added.

The GUI additionally permits the user to load existing filters or rulesalready declared and available via the system or to save the newlycreated rule or filter, or to sort, etc. Further still, the “Run”capability, which is discussed in greater detail below, permits themetadata rules user 1550 to simulate execution of the newly defined rulewithout actually transacting anything onto the blockchain and withoutpushing the newly created rule to the blockchain for consensus andacceptance.

Notably, the Application Selection GUI permits the metadata rules user1550 to create rules which are to be applied to transactions associatedwith a particular application, such as the “bank record application”which is depicted as having been selected here within the applicationselection GUI. However, it is also permissible to have metadata rulesapplied to specific transactions on the blockchain or to alltransactions on the blockchain.

FIG. 15B depicts another exemplary architecture 1502 in accordance withdescribed embodiments.

There is again depicted the metadata rules user 1550 utilizing thecomputing device 1599 and specifically utilizing the graphical userinterface (GUI) 1510 to configure metadata rules to be applied totransactions occurring on the blockchain.

Whereas the prior GUI permitted the metadata rules user to apply newlydefined rules or apply previously created rules to transactionsassociated with a particular application previously declared, thetransaction selection GUI depicted here permits the metadata rules user1550 to apply rules specifically to transactions of a given type or toall transactions on the blockchain, regardless of type, and regardlessof whether such transactions happen to be associated with any declaredapplication.

As shown here, there are various permissible configurations for newlydefined metadata rules or for available previously defined metadatarules. For example, the metadata rules user 1550 may apply a new orexisting rule to “All transactions—Pre Execution” in which case the ruleis, as described, executed for every transaction which arrives on theblockchain prior to executing the transaction itself. Such pre-executionrules may be utilized for any defined criteria and conditions, but areideally suited for validation procedures, such as validating thatalphanumeric characters are not entered into a numeric field, or that adate entered into a date field corresponds to a valid date format, orcomplies with certain restrictions, such as within a permissible numberof days, or represents a date which is not in the future or not in thepast, and so forth. Additional validation schemes to occur prior toexecution of a received transaction at the blockchain may include, forexample, a validation that an account holder has sufficient fundsavailable for a requested funds transfer. For example, if a user wantsto transfer 1 bitcoin value or some other unit of value to another user,a pre-execution rule may check to validate that the user or accountholder has possession of the funds equal to or greater than the amountof funds to be transferred.

Additionally permissible are post execution metadata rules for alltransactions. Such rules may be utilized to take some action after atransaction occurs on the blockchain, such as triggering a notificationor issuing a confirmation to a transaction requestor, or pushingtransaction data to a log or to an analytics engine or to an AI engine,etc. Many possibilities exist, but the rule creation and application toa post-execution transaction means that the rule will be applied toevery transaction on the blockchain after execution of the transactionor alternatively, based on the rule's conditions and criteria, to everytransaction on the blockchain which matches the defined criteria andconditions, after execution of the transaction on the blockchain.

There is further permissible the application of defined metadata rulesto any transaction having a particular transaction type (for pre or posttransaction execution) or for any transaction having a particulartransaction type and which meets certain defined criteria and conditionsin accordance with the defined rule as set forth by the rule creationGUI. For example, there is depicted here that the metadata rules user1550 has selected the “Loan Approval Transaction Type,” for applicationof a particular rule, which as depicted by the GUI, happens to havealready been defined and deployed to the blockchain for pre-execution.The deployed state indicates that consensus has already been reached forthis existing metadata rule, whereas any newly defined rule wouldrequire consensus to be reached before the status would indicate a“deployed” state.

Ultimately, the GUIs will consume the entered data provided by themetadata rules user 1550 and auto-generate applicable code. For example,the exemplary code depicted here may be output by the GUI and transactedonto the blockchain for consensus and then execution against thematching transactions:

# COMMENT: current_inventory < 5 # COMMENT: OR # COMMENT: (current_month= “December” # COMMENT: AND # COMMENT: current_inventory < 20) { “rules”: [{  “name” : “inventory_rule”,  “criteria”: { “any”: [  {“name”: “inventory”,   “operator”: “less_than”,   “value”: 5,  }, ]}, “actions”: [ { “name”: “order_more”,  “params”:{“number_to_order”: 40},}, ]  }] }

Thus, as depicted here, the GUIs output appropriate syntax, whichaccording to this example, will be applied to transactions for which the“current inventory” is less than 5 or in situations in which the“current month” is December and for which the “current inventory” isless than 20, presumably because there is a spike in demand for themonth of December, and so the metadata rules creator has indicated thatsuch rules are to be applied anytime inventory falls below five or inthe special situation of December when inventory falls below twenty.

Such syntax may then be processed through the Apex translation engine totransform the blockchain platform agnostic syntax into a nativeblockchain syntax for the targeted blockchain to which the rule is to beapplied and executed via smart contracts on that respective blockchain,as was described previously with regard to, for example, FIGS. 4A and 4Bwith issuance (deployment) of metadata to the blockchain and retrievalthereof being depicted at FIG. 4C.

The code the follows the syntax then implements the necessary rule viasmart contract execution. Notably, the code is created by the GUIinterface on behalf of the metadata rules user 1550, thus greatlysimplifying the configuration and creation of such rules.

One of the biggest problems for business users seeking to leverage thecapabilities of Blockchain technology is the creation and programming ofbusiness rules for smart contracts execution.

Problematically, each of the different blockchain platforms havedifferent smart contract requirements for executing such business rules,resulting in different syntaxes, different permissible conditions andcriteria and different mechanisms by which to deploy any created rulesto the respective blockchain.

Consequently, any validation schemes and workflows to execute suchbusiness rules are written via smart contracts which are then deployedto the respective blockchain, and because of the differing syntaxes,such rules must be manually written by programmers and developersspecifically for a particular blockchain to which such rules are to beapplied and utilized.

It is therefore in accordance with the described embodiments thatmetadata rules users, blockchain administrators, and programmersutilizing the metadata driven blockchain platform may create metadatadriven business rules which are then executed via the same smartcontracts on the respective blockchain platforms, but withoutnecessitating the metadata rules users, blockchain administrators, andprogrammers create different rules syntax for every different platform.

Therefore, it is permissible for blockchain administrators and metadatarule users to define a business rule within their own cloud environmentutilizing GUIs provided by the host organization's which then generatesthe necessary syntax and metadata defining such rules which is thenstored in Blockchain as metadata as well as, according to certainembodiments, being converted into a native blockchain smart contractexecution format.

As software systems utilizing blockchain grow in complexity and usage,it becomes burdensome to business users if every change to the logicand/or behavior of the system breaks previously configured smartcontracts and business rules, thus requiring the business users to writeand deploy new code, which is a significant problem with decentralizednetworks given that the business user is often not in a position todictate how and when the blockchain platform they are using is updatedor modified.

Therefore, use of the metadata driven business rules engine inblockchain provides such business users with a simple interface,allowing anyone to capture new rules and logic defining the behavior ofa system, including non-programmers through the use of the GUIs. Suchrules, represented by the metadata written to the blockchain, may thenbe executed by the blockchain via smart contract execution. When changesto the behavior of the blockchain platform occur, the metadata does notneed to be re-written or re-coded, rather, the metadata stored on theblockchain is simply read and executed in accordance with the newbehavior of the blockchain platform, as the defined metadata rules isagnostic in terms of such changes to the underlying blockchain platform.However, in certain situations, the host organizations BlockchainMetadata Definition Manager 196 may need to trigger a re-conversion ofthe defined metadata rules into native smart contract executable codefor the blockchain in question, but such events may be automated and donot require any specific action on the part of the business user andcertainly do not require the business user to re-write their businessrules or the associated code to implement such rules. In otherembodiments, the metadata, having been written to the blockchain, maysimply be re-read by the smart contract execution engine and interpretedand executed appropriately at the blockchain's backend processor,without any action by the host organization or the business user,depending upon the capabilities of the particular blockchain platformfor which the business rules have been applied.

According to a particular embodiment, a blockchain administrator maydefine marketing logic and business rules for a specific declaredapplication (DApp), such as one selected via the Application SelectionGUI at FIG. 15A. For example, blockchain administrator or other metadatarules user having appropriate permissions may then define conditionsspecifying when certain customers or items are eligible for a discountbased on the transaction in blockchain. The conditions may be specifiedfor certain customers, or certain items, or other criteria, such asinventory levels, date ranges, or whatever business logic is appropriateof the needs of the business's objectives.

Normally, the creation of such business rules requires specializedsyntax to be developed by a programmer for execution via a blockchainplatform's smart contract execution engine, with such syntax beingdifferent for different blockchain platforms. However, in the event thatthe metadata rules user or blockchain administrator utilizes theBlockchain Metadata Definition Manager 196 provided by the hostorganization's suite of blockchain services, then the blockchainadministrator need only define the rule via the GUIs, associating themwith particular declared applications or specific types of transactions(or all transactions), and then, once the submitted rule is approved bythe blockchain network's consensus mechanism, the defined rule will beexecuted automatically by host organization's blockchain servicesinterface and associated smart contract execution and managementengines.

FIG. 15C depicts another exemplary architecture 1503 in accordance withdescribed embodiments.

As shown here, there is also permissible entry of the metadata rules viaan Application Programming Interface (API) 1511 via the metadata rulesuser in the event that a metadata rules programmer 1551 or developerwishes to create the rule syntax manually or in the event that anotherapplication is utilized to push the appropriate syntax to the metadatarules creation engine, which may permissibly be accomplished via themetadata rules API to the same effect as if the metadata rules userconfigures such rules via the GUIs.

Regardless of how such metadata rules are written, be it via the GUIsprovided or the API interface, the defined rules may be utilized toenforce validation requirements for data entry and input submitted to anapplication or to trigger various execution flows, such as discountingmerchandise for certain customers or based on certain inventory levelsas noted above.

Once defined, the metadata rules written to the blockchain are executedat the blockchain network level using the blockchain's smart contractexecution engine where available or executed via the host organization'ssmart contract execution engine when such capabilities are not availablevia the blockchain platform.

Utilizing such metadata rules driven smart contracts, exemplaryvalidations may include, for example, prohibiting entry of incorrectdata (e.g., telephone numbers with incorrect numbers of digits ormalformed email addresses, etc.) or the entry of improper type data,such as entering alpha characters into a numeric only field, etc.

However, very often, the rules are not validation specific, butrepresent more complex business rules to be defined via the blockchainmetadata definition manager 196. For instance, as noted above in theinventory application example, there may be various actions to be takenbased on inventory levels being too high or inventory levels beingdiminished, etc. Such metadata rules may be utilized therefore for themanagement of stock levels across multiple partners, each of which mayhave their own local inventor, but for which the rules are applied basedon an aggregate inventory, etc.

Prior solutions required that programmers and developers cod the rulesinto a native blockchain executable format for smart contract executionand the process was complex, error prone, and simply not available tonovice or non-programmer business users, who are the very individualsmost likely to craft and define such rules. This arrangement thereforeadds cost and complexity on the part of businesses wishing to utilizethe blockchain technology and leverage the capabilities of smartcontract execution, as it was necessary to pay a highly skilleddeveloper to code the rules into the engine, while not addressing theproblem of the high potential for error.

Because the metadata rules are defined and written to the blockchainutilizing a blockchain agnostic format, it is possible for the samemetadata rule to be created once and then applied to multiple differentblockchain platforms. Moreover, because the UI allows the user to createthe full syntax (either via the GUIs or the API), it is further possibleof the GUI condition builder to specify conditions specific to the needsof the business developer or program such conditions through the API.

Further still, regardless of whether the GUI or the API is utilized, thedefined metadata rules are restricted to the creation of permissibleentities, field definitions, and field types for an associatedapplication or for an associated transaction because the metadata drivenblockchain platform will not allow the creation of a rule or conditionwhich violates the defined metadata for a declared application or adeclared entity or its dependent field definitions and field types.

In such a way, creation of metadata rules is restricted to only thoseconditions, criteria, transactions and declared applications for whichthe blockchain administrator or metadata rules user has permissions tointeract with and for which such defined business rules is in compliancewith the metadata for the associated declared application (DApp),entity, etc.

By restricting the definition of the metadata rules to only permissibleentries in compliance with previously defined metadata definitions forexisting applications, entities, transaction types, etc., it istherefore further possible to significantly reduce the possibility forsecurity holes, logic errors, or other malformed business rules whichmay occur if the code for such rules were to be written free form,without being restricted to such metadata definitions or to thepermissible criteria on the condition builder GUIs.

According to yet another embodiment, once the metadata rules code isoutput from the GUI or accepted by the API, it is then processed andtraversed through a metadata governance model, prior to the metadatarules code being submitted to the blockchain.

Processing the code through the governance model then presents tometadata rules user or the blockchain administrator creating themetadata rules information on how the created code will affectblockchain transactions and assets, thus permitting the user to see onthe fly within a simulated or sandbox environment, how the rule willperform when executed for a blockchain transaction. For example, thegovernance model and rule simulation may mimic or simulate certainvalues to show what the rule will create when executed on the blockchainand how data, assets, and transaction execution will be affected on theblockchain.

According to another embodiment, once the code is created and processedthrough the governance model, the user may then submit the code topartners on the blockchain platform (e.g., submitting the code to otherblockchain participating nodes) for evaluation and consensus priormetadata rules and code defining such rules being accepted onto theblockchain.

According to such an embodiment, the partners and any participating nodeonto the blockchain may apply the same governance model and alsosimulate execution of the created metadata rule to observe how the rulewill affect data, assets, and transactions for the blockchain, withoutactually executing anything on the blockchain itself.

Based on the simulated execution, the partners and participating nodesmay then vote for consensus or vote to reject the rule, etc., so as todetermine whether or not the defined metadata rule will be accepted ontothe blockchain.

According to a particular embodiment, the code and syntax for the ruleis created in a JSON compatible format, but then later, when writtenonto the blockchain after consensus, is translated into Web AssemblyLanguage, and thus takes on a safer binary format with cryptographicproperties of a contract that cannot be changed by anyone once deployedonto the blockchain. Stated differently, all of the participating nodescan see the deployed and accepted code in its Web Assembly Languageformat, but they cannot change it, without again proceeding throughoutthe entire creation/editing of the rule, validation against metadatadefinitions, subjection to governance, and submitted again for consensusand then acceptance onto the blockchain.

WebAssembly (often shortened to Wasm or WASM) is a standard that definesa binary format and a corresponding assembly-like text format forexecutables used by web pages. The purpose of Wasm is to enable theJavaScript engine of a web browser to execute page scripts nearly asfast as native machine code. While not a full replacement forJavaScript, Wasm provides improved execution for performance-criticalportions of page scripts and runs in the same sandbox as regular scriptcode.

Representation of WebAssembly code or Wasm code is intended to be run ona portable abstract structured stack machine designed to be faster thanparsing JavaScript, as well as faster to execute and amenable toextremely compact code representation.

Once accepted to the blockchain, the smart contract is then triggeredand executed based on transaction type or based on all transactions orbased on whatever defined criteria and conditions were defined andaccepted.

According to such embodiments, execution of the smart contract isperformed by multiple nodes on the blockchain or by all nodes on theblockchain, and output is then compared by multiple blockchain nodes toensure that the output from concurrent executions is identical, so as toprevent tampering or any spoofing attempt or submission of malicious orfraudulent smart contract execution output as authentic.

Assuming the output is identical for multiple participating nodes havingexecuted the smart contract, then consensus will be met and the resultsor output of the smart contract execution will be accepted onto theblockchain.

As noted above, there are permitted both pre and post transactionexecution constructs, in which pre execution is typically preferred forvalidation of data prior to even attempting to execute a transactionreceived at the blockchain and in which post execution is utilized toevaluate whether or not an event or transaction occurs in a particularway, then to take some action via the smart contract after execution ofthe transaction.

The metadata rules are considered to be metadata driven and declarativeon the fly because the rules may be created utilizing a conditionbuilder and simulated to test how the transaction or rule execution willlook in a sandbox environment. In such a way, partners and otherparticipating nodes on a blockchain are put at ease because they too canreview the rule via the GUI rather than having to pay a programmer ordeveloper to review 1000s of lines of code in a costly, time consuming,and burdensome process, which thus in turn drastically improves securityby limiting the conditions and values that can be coded into a smartcontact from the GUI and the API to that which is compatible with thedefined metadata for a declared application or its associated entitiesor entities and field definitions for a particular transaction, etc.

Moreover, because the code is converted into a WebAssembly (WASM) formatand represented as a binary, it is safe from tampering and maliciousactors.

According to yet additional embodiments, conditions specified via ametadata rule may further be limited according to whether a transactionon the blockchain is by an “owner” of a declared application or a“party” of a declared application (DApp). For example, an owner of theapplication may have enhanced rights to, for example, modify a recordtransacted onto the blockchain whereas an authorized network participantfor the declared application may be merely a “party” for the applicationand may thus have permissions to create new records and submitadditional information for records as well as read records, but perhapsthey lack authority to modify or alter certain records, thus permittinga permissions enforcement mechanism for data on the blockchain in whichthe metadata rules will define a rule requiring that, for example, atransaction seeking to change an existing record must first “validate”in a pre-transaction execution smart contract that the transactionsubmitter is an “owner” for the application rather than merely a “party”for the application. Many other variations of permission enforcement arepossible. Further still, such a rule could be utilized to trigger anotification when a “party” but not “owner” submits a record changetransaction, with the defined metadata a rule then defining whether ornot that transaction is processed or rejected.

FIG. 16 depicts a flow diagram illustrating a method 1600 forimplementing a declarative and metadata driven blockchain platform usingDistributed Ledger Technology (DLT) in conjunction with a cloud basedcomputing environment such as a database system implementation supportedby a processor and a memory to execute such functionality to providecloud based on-demand functionality to users, customers, andsubscribers.

Method 1600 may be performed by processing logic that may includehardware (e.g., circuitry, dedicated logic, programmable logic,microcode, etc.), software (e.g., instructions run on a processingdevice) to perform various operations such as operating, defining,declaring, associating, writing, receiving, retrieving, adding,transacting, training, distributing, processing, transmitting,analyzing, triggering, pushing, recommending, parsing, persisting,exposing, loading, generating, storing, maintaining, creating,returning, presenting, interfacing, communicating, querying, providing,determining, displaying, updating, sending, etc., in pursuance of thesystems and methods as described herein. For example, the hostedcomputing environment 111, the blockchain services interface 1650, andits database system 130 as depicted at FIG. 1, et seq., and othersystems and components as described herein may implement the describedmethodologies. Some of the blocks and/or operations listed below areoptional in accordance with certain embodiments. The numbering of theblocks presented is for the sake of clarity and is not intended toprescribe an order of operations in which the various blocks must occur.

With reference to the method 1600 depicted at FIG. 16, beginning withblock 1605, there are described operations by a system of a hostorganization for declaring a new application and transacting definedmetadata for the new application onto a blockchain, by the followingoperations:

At block 1610, processing logic operates a blockchain interface to theblockchain on behalf of a plurality of tenants of the host organization,in which each one of the plurality of tenants operate as a participatingnode with access to the blockchain.

At block 1615, processing logic receives, from a user devicecommunicably interfaced with the system, first input declaring the newapplication.

At block 1620, processing logic receives second input from the userdevice adding a plurality of network participants for the newapplication, in which the network participants are granted access rightsto the new application.

At block 1625, processing logic receives third input from the userdevice declaring a plurality of entity types for the new application.

At block 1630, processing logic receives fourth input from the userdevice declaring one or more new field definitions for each of theplurality of entity types.

At block 1635, processing logic generates a blockchain asset havingencoded therein as the defined metadata for the new application, atleast (i) the plurality of network participants declared, (ii) theplurality of entity types declared, and (iii) the one or more new fielddefinitions declared for each of the plurality of entity types.

At block 1640, processing logic transacts the blockchain asset havingthe defined metadata encoded therein for the new application onto theblockchain.

FIG. 17 depicts a flow diagram illustrating a method 1700 forimplementing a declarative, metadata driven, cryptographicallyverifiable multi-network (multi-tenant) shared ledger in conjunctionwith a cloud based computing environment such as a database systemimplementation supported by a processor and a memory to execute suchfunctionality to provide cloud based on-demand functionality to users,customers, and subscribers.

Method 1700 may be performed by processing logic that may includehardware (e.g., circuitry, dedicated logic, programmable logic,microcode, etc.), software (e.g., instructions run on a processingdevice) to perform various operations such as operating, defining,declaring, associating, writing, receiving, retrieving, adding,transacting, training, distributing, processing, transmitting,analyzing, triggering, pushing, recommending, parsing, persisting,exposing, loading, generating, storing, maintaining, creating,returning, presenting, interfacing, communicating, querying, providing,determining, displaying, updating, sending, etc., in pursuance of thesystems and methods as described herein. For example, the hostedcomputing environment 111, the blockchain services interface 1750, andits database system 130 as depicted at FIG. 1, et seq., and othersystems and components as described herein may implement the describedmethodologies. Some of the blocks and/or operations listed below areoptional in accordance with certain embodiments. The numbering of theblocks presented is for the sake of clarity and is not intended toprescribe an order of operations in which the various blocks must occur.

With reference to the method 1700 depicted at FIG. 17, beginning withblock 1705, processing logic operates an interface to a shared ledger onbehalf of a plurality of authorized network participants for the sharedledger, in which the shared ledger persists data via a plurality ofdistributed shared ledger nodes.

At block 1710, processing logic generates a network org within theshared ledger to store the data on behalf of a founder org as a firstone of the plurality of authorized network participants.

At block 1715, processing logic receives input from the founder orgdefining a plurality of partner orgs as additional authorized networkparticipants for the network org, in which all of the authorized networkparticipants have read access to the data stored by the network org viathe shared ledger without replicating the data.

At block 1720, processing logic receives input from the founder orgdefining permissions for each of the partner orgs to interact with thenetwork org within the shared ledger.

At block 1725, processing logic writes metadata to the shared ledgerdefining at least the authorized network participants for the networkorg and the permissions defined for each of the partner orgs.

At block 1730, processing logic receives requests from the authorizednetwork participants to interact with the network org.

At block 1735, processing logic transacts with the shared ledger infulfillment of the requests.

FIG. 18A illustrates a block diagram of an environment 1898 in which anon-demand database service may operate in accordance with the describedembodiments. Environment 1898 may include user systems 1812, network1814, system 1816, processor system 1817, application platform 1818,network interface 1820, tenant data storage 1822, system data storage1824, program code 1826, and process space 1828. In other embodiments,environment 1898 may not have all of the components listed and/or mayhave other elements instead of, or in addition to, those listed above.

Environment 1898 is an environment in which an on-demand databaseservice exists. User system 1812 may be any machine or system that isused by a user to access a database user system. For example, any ofuser systems 1812 may be a handheld computing device, a mobile phone, alaptop computer, a work station, and/or a network of computing devices.As illustrated in FIG. 18A (and in more detail in FIG. 18B) user systems1812 might interact via a network 1814 with an on-demand databaseservice, which is system 1816.

An on-demand database service, such as system 1816, is a database systemthat is made available to outside users that do not need to necessarilybe concerned with building and/or maintaining the database system, butinstead may be available for their use when the users need the databasesystem (e.g., on the demand of the users). Some on-demand databaseservices may store information from one or more tenants stored intotables of a common database image to form a multi-tenant database system(MTS). Accordingly, “on-demand database service 1816” and “system 1816”is used interchangeably herein. A database image may include one or moredatabase objects. A relational database management system (RDMS) or theequivalent may execute storage and retrieval of information against thedatabase object(s). Application platform 1818 may be a framework thatallows the applications of system 1816 to run, such as the hardwareand/or software, e.g., the operating system. In an embodiment, on-demanddatabase service 1816 may include an application platform 1818 thatenables creation, managing and executing one or more applicationsdeveloped by the provider of the on-demand database service, usersaccessing the on-demand database service via user systems 1812, or thirdparty application developers accessing the on-demand database servicevia user systems 1812.

The users of user systems 1812 may differ in their respectivecapacities, and the capacity of a particular user system 1812 might beentirely determined by permissions (permission levels) for the currentuser. For example, where a salesperson is using a particular user system1812 to interact with system 1816, that user system has the capacitiesallotted to that salesperson. However, while an administrator is usingthat user system to interact with system 1816, that user system has thecapacities allotted to that administrator. In systems with ahierarchical role model, users at one permission level may have accessto applications, data, and database information accessible by a lowerpermission level user, but may not have access to certain applications,database information, and data accessible by a user at a higherpermission level. Thus, different users will have different capabilitieswith regard to accessing and modifying application and databaseinformation, depending on a user's security or permission level.

Network 1814 is any network or combination of networks of devices thatcommunicate with one another. For example, network 1814 may be any oneor any combination of a LAN (local area network), WAN (wide areanetwork), telephone network, wireless network, point-to-point network,star network, token ring network, hub network, or other appropriateconfiguration. As the most common type of computer network in currentuse is a TCP/IP (Transfer Control Protocol and Internet Protocol)network, such as the global internetwork of networks often referred toas the “Internet” with a capital “I,” that network will be used in manyof the examples herein. However, it is understood that the networks thatthe claimed embodiments may utilize are not so limited, although TCP/IPis a frequently implemented protocol.

User systems 1812 might communicate with system 1816 using TCP/IP and,at a higher network level, use other common Internet protocols tocommunicate, such as HTTP, FTP, AFS, WAP, etc. In an example where HTTPis used, user system 1812 might include an HTTP client commonly referredto as a “browser” for sending and receiving HTTP messages to and from anHTTP server at system 1816. Such an HTTP server might be implemented asthe sole network interface between system 1816 and network 1814, butother techniques might be used as well or instead. In someimplementations, the interface between system 1816 and network 1814includes load sharing functionality, such as round-robin HTTP requestdistributors to balance loads and distribute incoming HTTP requestsevenly over a plurality of servers. At least as for the users that areaccessing that server, each of the plurality of servers has access tothe MTS' data; however, other alternative configurations may be usedinstead.

In one embodiment, system 1816, shown in FIG. 18A, implements aweb-based Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. For example, inone embodiment, system 1816 includes application servers configured toimplement and execute CRM software applications as well as providerelated data, code, forms, webpages and other information to and fromuser systems 1812 and to store to, and retrieve from, a database systemrelated data, objects, and Webpage content. With a multi-tenant system,data for multiple tenants may be stored in the same physical databaseobject, however, tenant data typically is arranged so that data of onetenant is kept logically separate from that of other tenants so that onetenant does not have access to another tenant's data, unless such datais expressly shared. In certain embodiments, system 1816 implementsapplications other than, or in addition to, a CRM application. Forexample, system 1816 may provide tenant access to multiple hosted(standard and custom) applications, including a CRM application. User(or third party developer) applications, which may or may not includeCRM, may be supported by the application platform 1818, which managescreation, storage of the applications into one or more database objectsand executing of the applications in a virtual machine in the processspace of the system 1816.

One arrangement for elements of system 1816 is shown in FIG. 18A,including a network interface 1820, application platform 1818, tenantdata storage 1822 for tenant data 1823, system data storage 1824 forsystem data 1825 accessible to system 1816 and possibly multipletenants, program code 1826 for implementing various functions of system1816, and a process space 1828 for executing MTS system processes andtenant-specific processes, such as running applications as part of anapplication hosting service. Additional processes that may execute onsystem 1816 include database indexing processes.

Several elements in the system shown in FIG. 18A include conventional,well-known elements that are explained only briefly here. For example,each user system 1812 may include a desktop personal computer,workstation, laptop, PDA, cell phone, or any wireless access protocol(WAP) enabled device or any other computing device capable ofinterfacing directly or indirectly to the Internet or other networkconnection. User system 1812 typically runs an HTTP client, e.g., abrowsing program, such as Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser, aMozilla or Firefox browser, an Opera, or a WAP-enabled browser in thecase of a smartphone, tablet, PDA or other wireless device, or the like,allowing a user (e.g., subscriber of the multi-tenant database system)of user system 1812 to access, process and view information, pages andapplications available to it from system 1816 over network 1814. Eachuser system 1812 also typically includes one or more user interfacedevices, such as a keyboard, a mouse, trackball, touch pad, touchscreen, pen or the like, for interacting with a graphical user interface(GUI) provided by the browser on a display (e.g., a monitor screen, LCDdisplay, etc.) in conjunction with pages, forms, applications and otherinformation provided by system 1816 or other systems or servers. Forexample, the user interface device may be used to access data andapplications hosted by system 1816, and to perform searches on storeddata, and otherwise allows a user to interact with various GUI pagesthat may be presented to a user. As discussed above, embodiments aresuitable for use with the Internet, which refers to a specific globalinternetwork of networks. However, it is understood that other networksmay be used instead of the Internet, such as an intranet, an extranet, avirtual private network (VPN), a non-TCP/IP based network, any LAN orWAN or the like.

According to one embodiment, each user system 1812 and all of itscomponents are operator configurable using applications, such as abrowser, including computer code run using a central processing unitsuch as an Intel Pentium® processor or the like. Similarly, system 1816(and additional instances of an MTS, where more than one is present) andall of their components might be operator configurable usingapplication(s) including computer code to run using a central processingunit such as processor system 1817, which may include an Intel Pentium®processor or the like, and/or multiple processor units.

According to one embodiment, each system 1816 is configured to providewebpages, forms, applications, data and media content to user (client)systems 1812 to support the access by user systems 1812 as tenants ofsystem 1816. As such, system 1816 provides security mechanisms to keepeach tenant's data separate unless the data is shared. If more than oneMTS is used, they may be located in close proximity to one another(e.g., in a server farm located in a single building or campus), or theymay be distributed at locations remote from one another (e.g., one ormore servers located in city A and one or more servers located in cityB). As used herein, each MTS may include one or more logically and/orphysically connected servers distributed locally or across one or moregeographic locations. Additionally, the term “server” is meant toinclude a computer system, including processing hardware and processspace(s), and an associated storage system and database application(e.g., OODBMS or RDBMS) as is well known in the art. It is understoodthat “server system” and “server” are often used interchangeably herein.Similarly, the database object described herein may be implemented assingle databases, a distributed database, a collection of distributeddatabases, a database with redundant online or offline backups or otherredundancies, etc., and might include a distributed database or storagenetwork and associated processing intelligence.

FIG. 18B illustrates another block diagram of an embodiment of elementsof FIG. 18A and various possible interconnections between such elementsin accordance with the described embodiments. FIG. 18B also illustratesenvironment 1899. However, in FIG. 18B, the elements of system 1816 andvarious interconnections in an embodiment are illustrated in furtherdetail. More particularly, FIG. 18B shows that user system 1812 mayinclude a processor system 1812A, memory system 1812B, input system1812C, and output system 1812D. FIG. 18B shows network 1814 and system1816. FIG. 18B also shows that system 1816 may include tenant datastorage 1822, having therein tenant data 1823, which includes, forexample, tenant storage space 1827, tenant data 1829, and applicationmetadata 1831. System data storage 1824 is depicted as having thereinsystem data 1825. Further depicted within the expanded detail ofapplication servers 1800 _(1-N) are User Interface (UI) 1830,Application Program Interface (API) 1832, application platform 1818includes PL/SOQL 1834, save routines 1836, application setup mechanism1838, process space 1828 includes system process space 1802, tenant 1-Nprocess spaces 1804, and tenant management process space 1810. In otherembodiments, environment 1899 may not have the same elements as thoselisted above and/or may have other elements instead of, or in additionto, those listed above.

User system 1812, network 1814, system 1816, tenant data storage 1822,and system data storage 1824 were discussed above in FIG. 18A. As shownby FIG. 18B, system 1816 may include a network interface 1820 (of FIG.18A) implemented as a set of HTTP application servers 1800, anapplication platform 1818, tenant data storage 1822, and system datastorage 1824. Also shown is system process space 1802, includingindividual tenant process spaces 1804 and a tenant management processspace 1810. Each application server 1800 may be configured to tenantdata storage 1822 and the tenant data 1823 therein, and system datastorage 1824 and the system data 1825 therein to serve requests of usersystems 1812. The tenant data 1823 might be divided into individualtenant storage areas (e.g., tenant storage space 1827), which may beeither a physical arrangement and/or a logical arrangement of data.Within each tenant storage space 1827, tenant data 1829, and applicationmetadata 1831 might be similarly allocated for each user. For example, acopy of a user's most recently used (MRU) items might be stored totenant data 1829. Similarly, a copy of MRU items for an entireorganization that is a tenant might be stored to tenant storage space1827. A UI 1830 provides a user interface and an API 1832 provides anapplication programmer interface into system 1816 resident processes tousers and/or developers at user systems 1812. The tenant data and thesystem data may be stored in various databases, such as one or moreOracle™ databases.

Application platform 1818 includes an application setup mechanism 1838that supports application developers' creation and management ofapplications, which may be saved as metadata into tenant data storage1822 by save routines 1836 for execution by subscribers as one or moretenant process spaces 1804 managed by tenant management process space1810 for example. Invocations to such applications may be coded usingPL/SOQL 1834 that provides a programming language style interfaceextension to API 1832. Invocations to applications may be detected byone or more system processes, which manages retrieving applicationmetadata 1831 for the subscriber making the invocation and executing themetadata as an application in a virtual machine.

Each application server 1800 may be communicably coupled to databasesystems, e.g., having access to system data 1825 and tenant data 1823,via a different network connection. For example, one application server18001 might be coupled via the network 1814 (e.g., the Internet),another application server 1800N-1 might be coupled via a direct networklink, and another application server 1800N might be coupled by yet adifferent network connection. Transfer Control Protocol and InternetProtocol (TCP/IP) are typical protocols for communicating betweenapplication servers 1800 and the database system. However, it will beapparent to one skilled in the art that other transport protocols may beused to optimize the system depending on the network interconnect used.

In certain embodiments, each application server 1800 is configured tohandle requests for any user associated with any organization that is atenant. Because it is desirable to be able to add and remove applicationservers from the server pool at any time for any reason, there ispreferably no server affinity for a user and/or organization to aspecific application server 1800. In one embodiment, therefore, aninterface system implementing a load balancing function (e.g., an F5Big-IP load balancer) is communicably coupled between the applicationservers 1800 and the user systems 1812 to distribute requests to theapplication servers 1800. In one embodiment, the load balancer uses aleast connections algorithm to route user requests to the applicationservers 1800. Other examples of load balancing algorithms, such as roundrobin and observed response time, also may be used. For example, incertain embodiments, three consecutive requests from the same user mayhit three different application servers 1800, and three requests fromdifferent users may hit the same application server 1800. In thismanner, system 1816 is multi-tenant, in which system 1816 handlesstorage of, and access to, different objects, data and applicationsacross disparate users and organizations.

As an example of storage, one tenant might be a company that employs asales force where each salesperson uses system 1816 to manage theirsales process. Thus, a user might maintain contact data, leads data,customer follow-up data, performance data, goals and progress data,etc., all applicable to that user's personal sales process (e.g., intenant data storage 1822). In an example of a MTS arrangement, since allof the data and the applications to access, view, modify, report,transmit, calculate, etc., may be maintained and accessed by a usersystem having nothing more than network access, the user may manage hisor her sales efforts and cycles from any of many different user systems.For example, if a salesperson is visiting a customer and the customerhas Internet access in their lobby, the salesperson may obtain criticalupdates as to that customer while waiting for the customer to arrive inthe lobby.

While each user's data might be separate from other users' dataregardless of the employers of each user, some data might beorganization-wide data shared or accessible by a plurality of users orall of the users for a given organization that is a tenant. Thus, theremight be some data structures managed by system 1816 that are allocatedat the tenant level while other data structures might be managed at theuser level. Because an MTS might support multiple tenants includingpossible competitors, the MTS may have security protocols that keepdata, applications, and application use separate. Also, because manytenants may opt for access to an MTS rather than maintain their ownsystem, redundancy, up-time, and backup are additional functions thatmay be implemented in the MTS. In addition to user-specific data andtenant specific data, system 1816 might also maintain system level datausable by multiple tenants or other data. Such system level data mightinclude industry reports, news, postings, and the like that are sharableamong tenants.

In certain embodiments, user systems 1812 (which may be client systems)communicate with application servers 1800 to request and updatesystem-level and tenant-level data from system 1816 that may requiresending one or more queries to tenant data storage 1822 and/or systemdata storage 1824. System 1816 (e.g., an application server 1800 insystem 1816) automatically generates one or more SQL statements (e.g.,one or more SQL queries) that are designed to access the desiredinformation. System data storage 1824 may generate query plans to accessthe requested data from the database.

Each database may generally be viewed as a collection of objects, suchas a set of logical tables, containing data fitted into predefinedcategories. A “table” is one representation of a data object, and may beused herein to simplify the conceptual description of objects and customobjects as described herein. It is understood that “table” and “object”may be used interchangeably herein. Each table generally contains one ormore data categories logically arranged as columns or fields in aviewable schema. Each row or record of a table contains an instance ofdata for each category defined by the fields. For example, a CRMdatabase may include a table that describes a customer with fields forbasic contact information such as name, address, phone number, faxnumber, etc. Another table might describe a purchase order, includingfields for information such as customer, product, sale price, date, etc.In some multi-tenant database systems, standard entity tables might beprovided for use by all tenants. For CRM database applications, suchstandard entities might include tables for Account, Contact, Lead, andOpportunity data, each containing pre-defined fields. It is understoodthat the word “entity” may also be used interchangeably herein with“object” and “table.”

In some multi-tenant database systems, tenants may be allowed to createand store custom objects, or they may be allowed to customize standardentities or objects, for example by creating custom fields for standardobjects, including custom index fields. In certain embodiments, forexample, all custom entity data rows are stored in a single multi-tenantphysical table, which may contain multiple logical tables perorganization. It is transparent to customers that their multiple“tables” are in fact stored in one large table or that their data may bestored in the same table as the data of other customers.

FIG. 19 illustrates a diagrammatic representation of a machine 1900 inthe exemplary form of a computer system, in accordance with oneembodiment, within which a set of instructions, for causing themachine/computer system 1900 to perform any one or more of themethodologies discussed herein, may be executed. In alternativeembodiments, the machine may be connected (e.g., networked) to othermachines in a Local Area Network (LAN), an intranet, an extranet, or thepublic Internet. The machine may operate in the capacity of a server ora client machine in a client-server network environment, as a peermachine in a peer-to-peer (or distributed) network environment, as aserver or series of servers within an on-demand service environment.Certain embodiments of the machine may be in the form of a personalcomputer (PC), a tablet PC, a set-top box (STB), a Personal DigitalAssistant (PDA), a cellular telephone, a web appliance, a server, anetwork router, switch or bridge, computing system, or any machinecapable of executing a set of instructions (sequential or otherwise)that specify actions to be taken by that machine. Further, while only asingle machine is illustrated, the term “machine” shall also be taken toinclude any collection of machines (e.g., computers) that individuallyor jointly execute a set (or multiple sets) of instructions to performany one or more of the methodologies discussed herein.

The exemplary computer system 1900 includes a processor 1902, a mainmemory 1904 (e.g., read-only memory (ROM), flash memory, dynamic randomaccess memory (DRAM) such as synchronous DRAM (SDRAM) or Rambus DRAM(RDRAM), etc., static memory such as flash memory, static random accessmemory (SRAM), volatile but high-data rate RAM, etc.), and a secondarymemory 1918 (e.g., a persistent storage device including hard diskdrives and a persistent database and/or a multi-tenant databaseimplementation), which communicate with each other via a bus 1930. Mainmemory 1904 includes a blockchain metadata definition manager 1924 and apermissions manager 1923 and a blockchain interface 1925 (including ablockchain consensus manager (not shown). Main memory 1904 and itssub-elements are operable in conjunction with processing logic 1926 andprocessor 1902 to perform the methodologies discussed herein.

Processor 1902 represents one or more general-purpose processing devicessuch as a microprocessor, central processing unit, or the like. Moreparticularly, the processor 1902 may be a complex instruction setcomputing (CISC) microprocessor, reduced instruction set computing(RISC) microprocessor, very long instruction word (VLIW) microprocessor,processor implementing other instruction sets, or processorsimplementing a combination of instruction sets. Processor 1902 may alsobe one or more special-purpose processing devices such as an applicationspecific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable gate array(FPGA), a digital signal processor (DSP), network processor, or thelike. Processor 1902 is configured to execute the processing logic 1926for performing the operations and functionality which is discussedherein.

The computer system 1900 may further include a network interface card1908. The computer system 1900 also may include a user interface 1910(such as a video display unit, a liquid crystal display, etc.), analphanumeric input device 1912 (e.g., a keyboard), a cursor controldevice 1914 (e.g., a mouse), and a signal generation device 1916 (e.g.,an integrated speaker). The computer system 1900 may further includeperipheral device 1936 (e.g., wireless or wired communication devices,memory devices, storage devices, audio processing devices, videoprocessing devices, etc.).

The secondary memory 1918 may include a non-transitory machine-readablestorage medium or a non-transitory computer readable storage medium or anon-transitory machine-accessible storage medium 1931 on which is storedone or more sets of instructions (e.g., software 1922) embodying any oneor more of the methodologies or functions described herein. The software1922 may also reside, completely or at least partially, within the mainmemory 1904 and/or within the processor 1902 during execution thereof bythe computer system 1900, the main memory 1904 and the processor 1902also constituting machine-readable storage media. The software 1922 mayfurther be transmitted or received over a network 1920 via the networkinterface card 1908.

In the foregoing description, numerous specific details are set forthsuch as examples of specific systems, languages, components, etc., inorder to provide a thorough understanding of the various embodiments. Itwill be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art that these specificdetails need not be employed to practice the embodiments disclosedherein. In other instances, well-known materials or methods have notbeen described in detail in order to avoid unnecessarily obscuring thedisclosed embodiments.

In addition to various hardware components depicted in the figures anddescribed herein, embodiments further include various operationsdescribed hereinabove. The operations described in accordance with suchembodiments may be performed by hardware components or may be embodiedin machine-executable instructions, which may be used to cause ageneral-purpose or special-purpose processor programmed with theinstructions to perform the operations. Alternatively, the operationsmay be performed by a combination of hardware and software.

Embodiments also relate to an apparatus for performing the operationsdisclosed herein. This apparatus may be specially constructed for therequired purposes, or it may be a general purpose computer selectivelyactivated or reconfigured by a computer program stored in the computer.Such a computer program may be stored in a computer-readable storagemedium, such as, but not limited to, any type of disk including opticaldisks, CD-ROMs, and magnetic-optical disks, read-only memories (ROMs),random access memories (RAMs), EPROMs, EEPROMs, magnetic or opticalcards, or any type of media suitable for storing electronicinstructions, each coupled to a computer system bus.

The algorithms and displays presented herein are not inherently relatedto any particular computer or other apparatus. Various general purposesystems may be used with programs in accordance with the teachingsherein, or it may prove convenient to construct more specializedapparatus to perform the required method steps. The required structurefor a variety of these systems will appear as set forth in thedescription below. In addition, embodiments are not described withreference to any particular programming language. It will be appreciatedthat a variety of programming languages may be used to implement theteachings of the embodiments as described herein.

Embodiments may be provided as a computer program product, or software,that may include a machine-readable medium having stored thereoninstructions, which may be used to program a computer system (or otherelectronic devices) to perform a process according to the disclosedembodiments. A machine-readable medium includes any mechanism forstoring or transmitting information in a form readable by a machine(e.g., a computer). For example, a machine-readable (e.g.,computer-readable) medium includes a machine (e.g., a computer) readablestorage medium (e.g., read-only memory (“ROM”), random access memory(“RAM”), magnetic disk storage media, optical storage media, flashmemory devices, etc.), a machine (e.g., computer) readable transmissionmedium (electrical, optical, acoustical), etc.

Any of the disclosed embodiments may be used alone or together with oneanother in combination. Although various embodiments may have beenpartially motivated by deficiencies with conventional techniques andapproaches, some of which are described or alluded to within thespecification, the embodiments need not necessarily address or solve anyof these deficiencies, but rather, may address only some of thedeficiencies, address none of the deficiencies, or be directed towarddifferent deficiencies and problems which are not directly discussed.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method performed by a system of a hostorganization for managing read access of data in a blockchain managed bya plurality of nodes of a blockchain network, the system providing ablockchain interface to the blockchain on behalf of a plurality oftenants of the host organization, the method comprising: receiving atransaction to be stored to the blockchain via the blockchain interface;encrypting transaction data from the transaction using a key generatedby the blockchain interface; dividing the key into a set of sharedsecrets corresponding to each node in the blockchain network; storingmetadata about the transaction data to the blockchain, wherein themetadata indicates an owner among the plurality of tenants for accesscontrol to the transaction data; receiving, from a first tenant of theplurality of tenants, a request to access the transaction data by theblockchain interface; receiving enough of the shared secrets from theplurality of nodes to indicate a consensus of the blockchain networkthat one or more criteria for accessing the transaction data have beenmet, the one or more criteria including that the first tenant is theowner indicated by the metadata; and decrypting the transaction data inresponse to receiving the enough of the shared secrets.
 2. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising: encrypting each shared secret in the set ofshared secrets using a public key of the respective node.
 3. The methodof claim 1, further comprising: storing encrypted the set of sharedsecrets in the metadata about the transaction data.
 4. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the transaction data is decrypted in response toreceiving a threshold number of shared secrets.
 5. The method of claim1, wherein a decryption key is recovered from received shared secrets.6. The method of claim 1, further comprising: denying access to thetransaction data in response to a number of the received shared secretsbeing below a threshold for recovering the key for encryption.
 7. Acomputing system of a host organization configured to perform a methodfor managing read access of data in a blockchain managed by a pluralityof nodes of a blockchain network, the computer system providing ablockchain interface to the blockchain on behalf of a plurality oftenants of the host organization, the computing system comprising: acomputer readable medium having stored therein the blockchain interface;and a processor coupled to the blockchain interface, the processorconfigured to execute the blockchain interface to: receive a transactionto be stored to the blockchain; encrypt transaction data from thetransaction using a key generated by the blockchain interface; dividethe key into a set of shared secrets corresponding to each node in theblockchain network; store metadata about the transaction data to theblockchain, wherein the metadata indicates an owner among the pluralityof tenants for access control to the transaction data; receive, from afirst tenant of the plurality of tenants, a request to access thetransaction data; receive enough of the shared secrets from theplurality of nodes to indicate a consensus of the blockchain networkthat one or more criteria for accessing the transaction data have beenmet, the one or more criteria including that the first tenant is theowner indicated by the metadata; and decrypt the transaction data inresponse to receiving the enough of the shared secrets.
 8. The computersystem of claim 7, wherein the blockchain interface is further toencrypt each shared secret in the set of shared secrets using a publickey of the respective node.
 9. The computer system of claim 7, whereinthe blockchain interface is further to store encrypted the set of sharedsecrets in the metadata about the transaction data.
 10. The computersystem of claim 7, wherein the transaction data is decrypted in responseto receiving a threshold number of shared secrets.
 11. The computersystem of claim 7, wherein a decryption key is recovered from receivedshared secrets.
 12. The computer system of claim 7, wherein theblockchain interface is further to deny access to the transaction datain response to a number of the received shared secrets being below athreshold for recovering the key for encryption.
 13. A non-transitorycomputer-readable medium having stored therein a set of instructions,which when executed cause a computer system of a host organization toperform a set of operations of a method for managing read access of datain a blockchain managed by a plurality of nodes of a blockchain network,the computer system providing a blockchain interface to the blockchainon behalf of a plurality of tenants of the host organization, the set ofoperations comprising: receiving a transaction to be stored to theblockchain via the blockchain interface; encrypting transaction datafrom the transaction using a key generated by the blockchain interface;dividing the key into a set of shared secrets corresponding to each nodein the blockchain network; storing metadata about the transaction datato the blockchain, wherein the metadata indicates an owner among theplurality of tenants for access control to the transaction data;receiving, from a first tenant of the plurality of tenants, a request toaccess the transaction data by the blockchain interface; receivingenough of the shared secrets from the plurality of nodes to indicate aconsensus of the blockchain network that one or more criteria foraccessing the transaction data have been met, the one or more criteriaincluding that the first tenant is the owner indicated by the metadata;and decrypting the transaction data in response to receiving the enoughof the shared secrets.
 14. The non-transitory computer-readable mediumof claim 13, the operations further comprising: encrypting each sharedsecret in the set of shared secrets using a public key of the respectivenode.
 15. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 13, theoperations further comprising: storing encrypted the set of sharedsecrets in the metadata about the transaction data.
 16. Thenon-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein thetransaction data is decrypted in response to receiving a thresholdnumber of shared secrets.
 17. The non-transitory computer-readablemedium of claim 13, wherein a decryption key is recovered from receivedshared secrets.
 18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim13, the operations further comprising: denying access to the transactiondata in response to a number of the received shared secrets being belowa threshold for recovering the key for encryption.
 19. The method ofclaim 1, wherein storing the metadata about the transaction data to theblockchain is responsive to a consensus of the blockchain network tocommit the transaction to the blockchain.
 20. The computer system ofclaim 7, wherein storing the metadata about the transaction data to theblockchain is responsive to a consensus of the blockchain network tocommit the transaction to the blockchain.
 21. The non-transitorycomputer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein storing the metadata aboutthe transaction data to the blockchain is responsive to a consensus ofthe blockchain network to commit the transaction to the blockchain.